[News] Middle East crisis live: Spanish aid vessel visible off Gaza coast, say reports

[GL HERO SHIMA]

Spanish aid vessel visible off Gaza coast – reports

The first aid vessel heading to the besieged Gaza Strip via a new maritime corridor was visible on Friday off the coast of the war-ravaged territory, an AFP journalist said.

AFP video footage and photographs showed the Spanish aid vessel visible off Gaza coast towing a barge which the Spanish charity operating it says is carrying 200 tonnes of food for Palestinians threatened with famine after more than five months of war.

The specialist site Vessel Finder showed the Open Arms roughly five kilometres (three miles) off the coast of northern Gaza, said AFP.

The Open Arms ship was spotted close to the coast of the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA

A handful of civilians gathered on the rubble-strewn coast on Friday to watch the vessel, AFP footage showed, though it was unclear when it would actually reach shore.

The food has been supplied by the US NGO World Central Kitchen, which has a team in Gaza building a jetty on to which the cargo can be unloaded.

Cyprus, the Mediterranean nation which is the starting point for the maritime corridor, has said a second, bigger vessel is being readied to make the same journey.

However, the sea missions and airdrops are “no alternative” to land deliveries, 25 organisations including Amnesty International and Oxfam said in a statement this week.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has in recent weeks recorded at least 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

Israel says 'Palestinians', not army, fired on Gaza crowd on Thursday

The Israeli army said on Friday that “armed Palestinians” opened fire on civilians awaiting humanitarian aid in northern Gaza, rejecting claims by the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry that Israeli soldiers were responsible, reports AFP.

“Armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy” in Gaza City on Thursday and then “continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks”, the army said in a statement.

The army did not provide a death toll for the incident which occurred on Thursday in Gaza City, but said “a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks”.

The Gaza health ministry had earlier said Israeli fire killed 20 people and wounded 155 at a roundabout, and an AFP journalist on the scene saw several bodies and people who had been shot.

“A review of our operational systems and [army] forces on the ground found that no tank fire, airstrike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan civilians at the aid convoy,” the Israeli statement said.

149 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 149 Palestinians were killed and 300 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, at least 31,490 Palestinians have been killed and 73,439 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Protests held in Dublin and Belfast urging US president to demand a permanent ceasefire in Middle East

Protests have been held in Dublin and Belfast urging US president Joe Biden to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East, reports the Press Association (PA).

The Amnesty International demonstrations took place to coincide with Irish premier Leo Varadkar’s meeting with Biden at the White House as part of the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit on Friday.

Activists from Amnesty gathered at US diplomatic offices in Dublin and Belfast on Friday morning holding banners that read: “President Biden, listen to your Irish roots and demand a permanent ceasefire.”

According to the PA, small number of Amnesty activists gathered at the gates of the offices of the US consulate general in Belfast where they laid a bowl of shamrock at the front of the building and handed over a letter to a representative from the consulate general.

Senior politicians from Leinster House and Stormont have been in Washington DC this week to promote Irish business and culture. But pressure has been on politicians to also speak about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and to use the opportunity to call for an immediate ceasefire and to push for peace.

Amnesty International Ireland’s executive director Stephen Bowen said they were asking Biden “to hear Irish people around the world pleading for an end to the atrocities”. He said:

Since the horrific attacks of 7 October, more than 30,000 Palestinian people have been killed, the majority of them women and children. To allow this travesty to continue is unspeakable. It’s time, mr president. Call for a permanent ceasefire to end the mass humanitarian suffering in Gaza, aid the return of hostages, and calm the tensions multiplying in the region.”

Amnesty International UK’s Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said:

Here today Amnesty activists are gathered outside the US consulate in Belfast, also today outside the US embassy in Dublin and over the weekend outside the White House in Washington, as Irish leaders go to meet president Biden.

We want them to bring a very clear message on behalf of people across Ireland north and south, to cry out for the Palestinian people, the people of Israel as well, in demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

President Biden has loudly, proudly proclaimed his Irish roots so we are asking him to listen to people in Ireland, we are asking him to use his power to deliver a permanent and an immediate ceasefire for the benefit of all in the Middle East.

Some have chosen to go [to Washington] and bring the message of peace, some have stayed at home in protest, our focus is on the message itself and that is that president Biden need to listen to people in Ireland and across the world and use his power, and he has immense power diplomatically, to unequivocally call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/15/middle-east-crisis-live-rows-over-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-proposal-israel