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The United States will launch humanitarian aid from planes to try to supply Gaza, as announced by President Joe Biden a day after the death of more than a hundred Palestinians in a line where they waited to receive food.
In addition, the White House has confirmed that it will try to open a maritime corridor to the Strip to be able to transport more humanitarian aid.
In parallel, Israel has assured that it will stop negotiations for a truce until Hamas provides a list of the Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza, according to the American media Axios.
The list was part of a pact between Egypt and Qatar, mediator countries for the ceasefire, and the Israeli Government to continue talks, but Israel claims to have not yet received the list.
On the other hand, a large part of the international community has condemned Thursday's aggression in Gaza in which more than a hundred people died while trying to get food in a convoy in Gaza City (north).
The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has called for an “independent investigation” into the massacre, as have the German Government, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
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The United States plans to open a maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza
White House spokesman for international affairs, John Kirby, has announced that the United States will "redouble its efforts" to open a maritime corridor to Gaza and be able to transport "hopefully large amounts" of humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea.
The humanitarian corridor would join other efforts by the US Government to increase the delivery of supplies to the Strip.
A few hours ago, the country's president, Joe Biden, announced that his army will also use its planes to drop humanitarian aid in the enclave from the air.
Washington has assured that it "will continue to pressure Israel to facilitate the entry of more trucks and the opening of more routes" to Gaza, Kirby insisted.
(Reuters)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 21:14
Macarena Vidal LiyWashington
The US announces that it will also launch humanitarian aid from planes to Gaza
The United States will resort to dropping humanitarian aid from planes to try to supply Gaza, where conditions are increasingly approaching famine.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this at the beginning of a meeting in the Oval Office with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, a day after the death of more than a hundred Palestinians in a line where they were waiting to receive flour.
The aid that has entered the Strip so far “is not enough,” the US president indicated at the beginning of the meeting.
“We are going to do everything possible” to increase the flow of assistance to the 2.3 million people trapped in the strip.
Several countries, led by Jordan, are already carrying out this type of deliveries.
The announcement comes while the administrator of the US agency for humanitarian aid, Samantha Power, is in the area, who met on Wednesday with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defense of that country, Yoav Gallant.
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 20:18
The country
Borrell asks that Brussels disburse all its aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the coming weeks
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, asked the European Commission this Friday to disburse all of the 82 million euros committed to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) “in the coming weeks”, after that Brussels announced hours before a first payment of 50 million.
"In accordance with the request of many Member States (of the European Union), I hope that the next tranches will be disbursed with the urgency required by the humanitarian crisis in the coming weeks," Borrell said on his official account on the social network X.
Borrell has also celebrated that Brussels has increased humanitarian aid to the Palestinians by 68 million euros in 2024, which it will distribute through the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
These funds are complementary to those contributed to UNRWA.
“The EU shows its continued commitment to those who suffer the consequences of war.
Access and delivery of aid must be guaranteed: it is a humanitarian imperative,” he added.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 20:15
The country
The Jordanian army drops humanitarian aid in Gaza from the air this Friday.
/ DAWOUD ABO ALKAS / GETTY IMAGES
What has happened in the last few hours
These are the most relevant news about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza at 8:00 p.m. this Friday, March 1:
Israel halts negotiations for a truce in Gaza until Hamas provides a list of hostages still alive in the Strip
.
This has been communicated to Egypt and Qatar, mediating countries for the pact, according to the American media Axios.
Hamas claims that seven of the hostages have died in attacks by the Israeli army.
"We tried to keep them alive, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on killing them all," said the commander of the militia's armed wing, Abu Ubaida.
Next week the EU will disburse 50 of the 82 million euros planned to finance UNRWA
.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has welcomed Brussels' decision and assures that it comes at a "critical moment."
The US intensifies contacts for the ceasefire in Gaza after the tragedy of the humanitarian aid trucks
.
US President Joe Biden has admitted that the attack, in which more than 100 people died, will complicate the talks being held in Qatar.
Jordan, Belgium and other countries drop humanitarian aid in Gaza from the air
.
The Jordanian Armed Forces have launched three aid packages on northern Gaza;
Belgium today joined Israel in blocking supplies entering by land.
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 20:05
The country
Israel says it will no longer negotiate a truce in Gaza until Hamas provides a list of hostages still alive
Israel has assured Qatar and Egypt – both mediating countries between the Israeli government and Hamas for a truce in Gaza – that it will not negotiate further until the Islamist militia provides a list of hostages still alive in the Strip, according to the American media Axios.
Egypt and Qatar had promised Israel that if it sent a delegation to Doha to negotiate — which it did on February 25 — about a truce agreement, they would pressure Hamas to report which hostages are still alive and to be flexible in regarding the number of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel that he asked to be released.
According to Axios, after four days of negotiations, this has not happened.
"The mediators promised that Hamas would give figures and that has not happened," said an Israeli official.
Talks to reach a truce appear stalled.
Hamas threatened this Thursday to arrest them after the death of more than 100 people collecting food from a convoy in northern Gaza, for which it blames the Israeli army.
Meanwhile, international diplomatic pressure is growing to reach an agreement and, consequently, a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid.
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 18:49
The country
Hamas denounces that seven of the Israeli hostages have died in the attacks of the Israeli army
The spokesman for the al-Qassam brigades - the armed wing of Hamas -, Abu Ubaida, has assured that seven of the hostages that the militia was holding in Gaza have died as a result of a bombardment by the Israeli army in the enclave.
The total number of kidnapped people who have died in captivity since the war began amounts to 70, according to the militia's own count.
Israel has only confirmed the deaths of about 30 hostages.
"We tried to keep them alive, but [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyau has insisted on killing all seven of them with attacks by the Israeli Army," Obeida said in a statement.
Hamas has confirmed the identity of three of the supposedly dead hostages, the elderly Israelis Haim Peri, Yoram Itak Metzger and Amiram Cooper, of whom it already warned weeks ago that it had no information about their condition or whereabouts, having lost contact with the cell that held them.
"We will announce the names of the other four deceased after confirming their identities," Obeida added.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 18:16
The country
Lula asks Guterres that the UN put an "immediate end" to the "genocide" in Gaza
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, asked this Friday the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to adopt a Celac motion to put “an immediate end to the genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
“The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza requires of us the ability to put an end to the collective punishment that Israel imposes on the Palestinian people,” Lula said before the plenary session of the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which is being held. celebrated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and attended by Guterres.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 17:33
The country
UN agency for Palestinians welcomes unlocking of EU funds
The head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to disburse 50 of the 82 million euros that were planned to finance the agency.
The decision, Lazzarini said in a statement on the social network X, comes "at a critical moment."
"It will support the agency's efforts to maintain essential and life-saving services for Palestinian refugees throughout the region," said the head of the agency.
Brussels has decided that the rest of the money will be released when Israel's accusations against UNRWA are clarified, which claims that some of its volunteers and employees participated in the terrorist attack by the Hamas militia.
"The full disbursement of the EU contribution is key to the agency's ability to maintain its operations in a very volatile area," Lazzarini added.
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 18:20
The country
Palestinian factions agree to continue dialogue to achieve a government of national unity
The Palestinian factions meeting this week in Moscow have agreed to continue dialogue to try to achieve national unity, according to a resolution released at the end of the meeting.
Palestinian representatives, including delegates from Hamas and Fatah, have agreed that their meetings would “continue in future rounds of dialogue to achieve comprehensive national unity encompassing all Palestinian forces and factions within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization.” (PLO), the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” the text states.
Those attending the meeting highlighted some “urgent tasks” facing the Palestinian people, including the cessation of “Israeli aggression” and the “genocide of the people” of Gaza and the West Bank.
Furthermore, they have highlighted the need to “lift the brutal siege” to which the Palestinian people are subjected and “force the Israeli occupation army” to withdraw from Gaza.
Those attending the meeting in Moscow have also rejected any attempt to “separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, as part of efforts to deprive the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday urged the Palestinians to unite to create their state, the only way to achieve lasting peace in the region, according to Moscow.
Representatives of Fatah and Hamas arrived in Moscow on Wednesday to try to overcome the internal division and negotiate the possible formation of a government of technocrats.
This meeting took place after the Palestinian Government presented its resignation to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), this week.
The decision – accepted by President Abbas, who has asked Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayeh to continue serving – opens the door to the “day after” that the US wants and is pressing for: that a reformed PNA with faces new ones regain the international legitimacy necessary to take charge of the day-to-day life of the Strip after the end of the Israeli military offensive.
Russia has always supported the Palestinian aspiration to create an independent State on the borders prior to the Six-Day War of 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem and in accordance with UN resolutions, which is why it offered its capital as its headquarters. of the meeting.
Furthermore, Russia has been waiting for several months for a visit to Moscow from Abbas, whose influence in the mediation process between Israel and Hamas is almost zero, since he does not act as an interlocutor nor does he have direct control over Gaza, where the Islamist group ousted Abbas from power. the ANP in 2007.
Similar reconciliation consultations took place in 2019 and 2017, when Fatah and Hamas demanded that Abbas form a national unity government.
(Agencies)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 16:54
The country
Petro accuses the US, the EU and the UK of supporting the dropping of bombs against the Palestinians
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, accused the US, the EU and the United Kingdom this Friday at the Celac summit of supporting Israel to launch bombs against the Palestinians, whose cause he is a staunch defender of.
Petro has said that “it is not the old dynamic of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict” that is being experienced today, but that there are powers that are trying to “conserve what exists (...), that are killing us as humanity.” and that it is “deeply violent.”
“That is why Germany supports genocide, and France, and the European Union, and the United Kingdom, and especially the United States of America, in its democratic version, support dropping bombs on people,” Petro stated at the América colloquium. Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, of the VIII summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which is held in Kingstown, capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Colombian president has stressed that “a genocide” is happening in front of everyone and has called for decarbonization, since he considers that the current economy is what has led to the war in Gaza.
Petro, who is a severe critic of Israel, announced on Thursday that Colombia "suspends all purchases of weapons" from that country in response to the attack perpetrated during the distribution of food and humanitarian aid in Gaza City (north), where more died yesterday. about a hundred people and another 700 were injured.
At least 112 Gazans died and another 760 were injured on Al Rashid Street, southeast of Gaza City, when they tried to pick up humanitarian aid carried by a convoy of 32 trucks, according to the Strip's Ministry of Health, in the hands of of Hamas.
Israel, which admitted that soldiers fired into the crowd, maintains that most people died from suffocation or were run over by trucks driven by Gazan civilians.
Petro has said that what happened in Gaza reflects that the world "can no longer stand on civilized international relations or on international law built on the Second World War, on the rubble of the Nazis."
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 16:43
The country
War between Israel and Gaza
The US intensifies contacts for the ceasefire after the tragedy of the aid trucks in Gaza
Macarena Vidal Liy
The United States has intensified its diplomatic pressure in the Middle East amid fears that the death of more than a hundred Palestinians who were trying to get humanitarian aid in Gaza, and against whom the Israeli army opened fire, could derail truce talks. .
This is one of the most serious episodes known so far in the Gaza war and has unleashed a wave of criticism among the leaders of different countries.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has called for an independent investigation to clarify the deaths of more than 100 people.
US President Joe Biden, who was traveling to Texas on Thursday to visit the border with Mexico, was asked by the journalists accompanying him about what happened.
Specifically, if it would complicate the talks taking place in Qatar.
“I know it is,” answered the tenant of the White House.
Read the full article here.
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 16:11
The country
Jordan carries out new airdrops of humanitarian aid over northern Gaza
The Jordanian Armed Forces reported this Friday three launches with humanitarian aid packages over northern Gaza, the scene of a new tragedy a day earlier, after Israel, according to the Palestinian version, fired on a crowd that was crowding together trucks that brought food.
“This measure is part of Jordan's efforts to send more medical, relief and food aid to the population of the Strip with the aim of alleviating the effects of the war,” the Jordanian Armed Forces said.
They have stressed that they will continue to send humanitarian aid and food, either through El Arish International Airport, in Egypt, or through air drops over the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army has assured that this new Jordanian aid consisted of almost fifty packages, which ended up in four different areas of Gaza.
A day before, they reported that part of another shipment of these fell into Israeli territory due to strong winds.
According to the authorities of the Strip, on Thursday more than a hundred people died, in addition to 700 wounded, as a result of a "massacre" attributed to Israeli forces, who fired on a crowd that came to request help towards a convoy carrying meal.
Israel, which admitted that soldiers fired into the crowd, maintains that most people died from suffocation or were run over by trucks driven by Gazan civilians.
(Agencies)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 15:23
The country
Belgium joins the group of countries that drop humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air
This Friday, Belgium joined the initiative of Jordan and other countries to launch humanitarian aid packages from the air to Gaza in the face of the blockade maintained by Israel so that the material can arrive by land.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza, you know, is dramatic.
After more than five months of war, we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe that must be stopped urgently,” said the Belgian Foreign Minister, Hadja Lahbib, in a video published on her X social network account from Abu Dhabi, where she maintains diplomatic contacts. to achieve a ceasefire in the Strip.
The minister added that “Belgium is committed to defending Human Rights around the world.”
Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France have also joined the initiative led by Jordan.
International organizations such as Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of using famine as a weapon of war, which constitutes a crime under international law.
The Belgian response comes after Thursday's aggression in Gaza in which more than a hundred people died while trying to get food in a convoy in Gaza City (north).
Israel, which admitted that the soldiers fired into the crowd, maintains that most people died from suffocation or being run over, while the Palestinian authorities have reported that it was due to the military's shots.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 15:06
The country
A member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is killed in an Israeli bombing of Syria
A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and two of his companions died this Friday due to a bombing attributed to Israel against a house in the province of Tartus, in western Syria, where several civilians have also been injured, according to the Observatory. Syrian Human Rights and has confirmed the state news agency IRNA.
The air attack targeted a chalet located on the outskirts of the city of Baniyas and caused the death of three people inside, including an “Iranian commander,” according to a statement from the NGO, based in the United Kingdom and a wide network of collaborators on the ground.
According to the note, along with the high command, two foreign companions have also died, although at the moment their nationalities and whether they were part of the ranks of any of the pro-Iranian militias present in Syria are unknown.
The action has also caused injuries to a series of civilians and has caused significant material damage, not only in the attacked home, but also in other neighboring homes.
The Observatory attributes the bombing to Israel, which on Thursday already killed a member of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah in a drone attack against a truck in the neighboring province of Homs and which simultaneously attacked targets of the Syrian anti-aircraft defenses on the outskirts with missiles. from Damascus.
Although they already took place relatively frequently before, the Jewish State has intensified its actions against Syrian territory since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
Their bombings are often directed against targets of Hezbollah, Iran's Revolutionary Guard and other militias close to Tehran that are present in Syria as allies of President Bashar al-Assad's government.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 14:37
The country
Brazil asks the international community to say “enough” to Netanyahu: “His military action in Gaza has no ethical limits”
The Brazilian Government stated this Friday that the international community must say “enough” to the Government of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after the death of more than a hundred Palestinian civilians in an attack against Palestinians who were collecting food from a convoy yesterday. Thursday.
In a statement from the Foreign Ministry, Brazil has stated that "the inaction" of the international community "continues to serve as a veiled incentive for the Netanyahu Government to continue attacking innocent civilians and ignoring the basic norms of international humanitarian law."
“The Netanyahu Government has demonstrated once again, with its actions and statements, that military action in Gaza has no ethical or legal limits.
And it is up to the international community to put an end to it to prevent new atrocities.
With every day of hesitation, more innocent people will die,” the statement states.
The Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has stressed that the “cynical and offensive statements to the victims” made by a high authority of the Israeli Government “must be the straw that broke the camel's back for anyone who truly believes in the value of human life".
Furthermore, Brazil has reiterated its call for a humanitarian ceasefire and has recalled that the precautionary measures issued by the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) - based in The Hague - on January 26 require that Israel adopt all the measures at its disposal to prevent the commission of all acts considered genocide.
Brazil has been firm in its criticism of both sides, has described the Hamas attacks as "terrorist" and has condemned in various forums and with the same forcefulness Israel's "disproportionate" response against the civilian population in the Strip, as diplomacy Brazilian has called it “genocide” on numerous occasions.
Brazilian criticism of Israel triggered a diplomatic crisis when, on February 18, President Lula raised the tone and compared Israeli tactics to those used by Hitler against the Jews in World War II, an offense that Tel Aviv did not take. for high.
In response to those words, Israel declared Lula persona
non grata
and publicly reprimanded the Brazilian ambassador, to which the South American country reacted by calling its diplomat for consultations and with the most energetic protests.
(Efe)
ACT.1 MAR 2024 - 14:16