US, UK leaders growing more ‘assertive’ with Israel over Gaza aid, ceasefire
Shifting public opinion in the US and Europe on Israel’s war on Gaza could push political leaders in the West to lobby more aggressively for lasting ceasefire conditions and more aid to Gaza, according to Luciano Zaccara, an assistant professor of Gulf politics at Qatar University.
Zaccara told Al Jazeera that the large number of US Democratic primary voters who voted “uncommitted” as a protest vote to Biden’s pro-Israel policies, along with George Galloway’s UK parliamentary election victory on a pro-Gaza platform, shows that voters are thinking more and more about their state’s “foreign policy behaviour” when they go to the ballot box.
While there are indications that US and UK leaders are responding to this trend – and being more assertive to Israel about the need for a ceasefire and to supply more aid to Gaza – it remains to be seen what tangible effect this will have as Israeli officials remain “uncommitted”, said Zaccara.
Israel will allow aid from UAE to enter Gaza Strip by sea
Israeli Channel 13 has reported that Israel will, for the first time, allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip by sea.
The report said that the aid will be financed and provided by the UAE, which will send a ship loaded with wide-ranging humanitarian aid to Cyprus first. The aid will then be examined by Israeli representatives and then transported and emptied on Gaza’s beach.
The UAE has requested that the first trial of this aid take place before the month of Ramadan starting next week.
EU’s von der Leyen heading to Cyprus to pursue Gaza maritime corridor
The European Commission president will head to Cyprus this week to work towards opening a humanitarian corridor into Gaza from the island, her spokesperson has said. “We all hope that this opening [of the corridor] will take place very soon”, said von der Leyen’s spokesperson.
Cyprus, located some 370km (230 miles) northwest of Gaza, is the closest EU member state to the besieged enclave.
The EU’s push for a maritime corridor into the enclave follows reports that the US government is considering a similar option.
Palestinian Foreign Ministry demands opening of all crossings to allow aid into Gaza
The ministry has called on the Israeli authorities to open the border crossings to allow aid into the Gaza Strip while condemning the prevention of the entry of aid, especially into northern Gaza.
“Israel’s focus on giving approvals to open sea lanes and preventing the passage of aid through land is aimed at the occupation government’s plan to perpetuate the occupation, the separation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip, and the displacement of our people,” a ministry statement said.
Biden’s allies stepping up pressure on White House over Gaza: Report
Joe Biden is facing increased demands from some of his closest allies in the US Senate to do more to ease Palestinian suffering in Gaza, according to The Associated Press news agency. Some of these senators are even joining calls to cut the US’s military aid to Israel if Netanyahu refuses to change course, it said. This includes Chris Coons, Biden’s closest confidant in Congress.
In recent days, the senator has called for the US to cut military aid to Israel if Netanyahu goes ahead with a threatened offensive on the southern city of Rafah without significant provisions to protect the more than one million civilians sheltering there, according to the AP.
Senator Jack Reed, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has also appealed to Biden to deploy the US Navy to get humanitarian aid to Gaza, the AP said, while the president’s ally Senator Tim Kaine has challenged the US strikes on the Houthis as unlikely to stop the Red Sea attacks.
Patty Murray, the most senior Democrat in the Senate, has meanwhile called for Israel to “change course”, it noted. “Israel needs to understand that the casualties they’ve inflicted on the people of Gaza – the devastation they have caused – cannot continue,” Murray, the Senate’s temporary president, said in a blistering speech on the chamber floor. “It is not in line with American interests, nor does it make Israel safer.”
US flour shipment to Gaza still stalled weeks later: Report
A large US shipment of flour intended for Gaza remains stalled 46 days after the White House first announced it and nearly two weeks since a new framework was agreed with Israel for its delivery, a US official has told the Times of Israel.
The official did not elaborate on what was causing the delay to the delivery of the flour, which is capable of feeding 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza for five months. The official said the shipment “should be delivered in the coming days”, the Times of Israel reports.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked the flour’s transfer in early February, stating that it would be distributed through UNRWA, which he called “a central part” of Hamas’s “war machine”. The revised framework stated that the US flour shipment would be distributed by the UN’s World Food Programme.
More than 8,000 patients need to be evacuated from Gaza: WHO
An official for the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that more than 8,000 people needed to be referred outside Gaza for medical treatment. Dr Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters on Tuesday that some 6,000 people needed to be referred for war-related injuries and ailments.
These include patients with multiple trauma injuries, burns and amputations. The other 2,000 were patients requiring care for cancer and other serious chronic illnesses. The WHO said moving such patients out of Gaza would relieve some of the strain on the medics and hospitals that are struggling to keep functioning in a war zone.
