The EU on Wednesday called on Israel to open additional crossings besides the Cyprus maritime corridor so that more aid can reach Gaza. The European statement comes after several people were killed in an Israeli strike on an UNRWA aid warehouse in Gaza's Rafah. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
Summary
- The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said one of its aid warehouses in Rafah in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was "hit" on Wednesday, wounding scores of people. The health ministry in Gaza said four people were killed in the "bombing of the warehouse".
- The EU on Wednesday called on Israel to open additional crossings besides the Cyprus maritime corridor so that more aid can reach Gaza.
- A Spanish ship called Open Arms carrying almost 200 tonnes of food was en route to the Gaza Strip Wednesday in a pilot project to open a new sea route for carrying aid to a population on the brink of famine.
- The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war and accused it of blocking overland routes that are the best way to get food to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing famine in the Gaza Strip.
- At least 31,272 Palestinians have been killed and 73,024 wounded since Israel started its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Senior United Nations officials on Tuesday welcomed the opening of a maritime corridor from Cyprus to deliver additional aid to the Gaza Strip, but said it could not replace the delivery of humanitarian assistance by land.
- Four US Army boats left Virginia on Tuesday, loaded with tons of equipment and steel pier segments, on a mission to build a floating pier off Gaza's shore for food deliveries.
- Six aid trucks crossed from Israel directly into northern Gaza on Tuesday as part of a project for ensuring the delivery of supplies into the area, the Israeli army announced.
- Israeli warplanes struck Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, hitting a facility belonging to Hezbollah and killing at least two members of the Iran-backed group, sources in Lebanon said.
- More children have been reported killed in the war raging in Gaza than in four years of conflict around the world, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said Tuesday.
- The United Nations used a new land route on Tuesday to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks as global pressure grows on Israel to allow more access to the coastal enclave amid a looming famine.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
