By Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy -
The Associated Press
A US army ship carrying material to build a temporary dock in Gaza was en route to the Mediterranean on Sunday, three days after US President Joe Biden announced plans to increase sea aid to the besieged enclave, where hundreds of Thousands of Palestinians are hungry.
The opening of the maritime corridor, accompanied by air deliveries from the United States, Jordan and other countries, showed the growing alarm over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a new intention to evade Israeli control through land routes.
[Biden announces the creation of a temporary port to supply aid to Gaza]
Israel said it was happy to accept maritime deliveries and would inspect the goods bound for Gaza before they left a staging area in nearby Cyprus.
For the past five months, the number of aid trucks entering the territory by land has been well below the 500 that arrived before the war, due to Israeli restrictions and security concerns.
The ship General Frank S. Besson prepares to depart Langley-Eustis Base, Virginia, on Saturday, March 9, 2024.AP
Meanwhile, Biden redoubled his public criticism of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden claimed to believe that Netanyahu “is hurting Israel more than helping it” in his war strategy against Hamas in Gaza, which is now in its sixth month.
Speaking to MSNBC journalist Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, the president expressed support for Israel's right to pursue Hamas following the Oct. 7 militant attack, but said Netanyahu "must pay more attention to the innocent lives that are being lost." as a consequence of the actions taken.”
He added that “there cannot be another 30,000 dead Palestinians.”
In Gaza, the number of Palestinian victims continued to rise.
The Department of Civil Defense reported that at least nine Palestinians, including children, had been killed Saturday night in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City.
Images shared by civil defense showed emergency personnel removing the dead and injured trapped in the collapsed house.
A rescuer held a dead baby before leaving the limp body on a sofa in the middle of the ruins.
Elsewhere, the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday received the bodies of 15 people, including women and children, according to an Associated Press journalist.
The 15 dead were killed by Israeli artillery fire at a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians on the coast west of the southern city of Khan Younis, relatives said.
Israel does not usually comment on specific incidents of the war.
He has blamed Hamas for civilian casualties because the armed group operates from residential areas.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that at least 31,045 Palestinians have died since the war began.
Their data does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, although they indicate that two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government, and its figures from other wars have largely coincided with those of the United Nations and independent experts.
Meanwhile, American efforts to open a temporary dock in Gaza for maritime deliveries were getting underway.
A first Army ship, the Gen. Frank S. Besson, set sail Saturday from his base in Virginia en route to the eastern Mediterranean with equipment to build a dock, U.S. Central Command said.
How will the maritime corridor work to deliver aid?
It will likely be weeks before the pier is operational, U.S. officials said.
The maritime corridor has support from the European Union, as well as the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The European Commission has said that United Nations and Red Cross agencies will also participate in the plan.
A ship from the Spanish humanitarian group Open Arms was scheduled to make a pilot trip to test the corridor starting this weekend.
The ship was waiting in the Cypriot port of Larnaca.
Open Arms founder Oscar Camps has said the ship, which is towing a barge with 200 tonnes of rice and flour, would take between two and three days to reach an undisclosed location.
A member of the World Central Kitchen charity, which is also involved in the trial, indicated in X that once the barge arrives in Gaza, the aid will be unloaded by crane, placed on trucks and taken by road to northern Gaza. which has been largely isolated from humanitarian deliveries.
Humanitarian officials have warned that air deliveries are not enough to cover the shortage on land supply routes.
The new plan to bring more aid came on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which is determined by the lunar calendar and could begin as early as Sunday night, depending on sightings of the crescent moon.
Israel declared war on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 250 hostages.
The harsh Israeli air and ground campaign has destroyed large areas of Gaza, displaced around 80% of its 2.3 million inhabitants and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The United States and regional mediators Egypt and Qatar had hoped to establish a six-week ceasefire by the time Ramadan began, but talks appeared stalled as Hamas sought assurances that the temporary truce would lead to an end to hostilities.
Mediators hoped to ease some of the immediate crisis with the temporary ceasefire, in which Hamas would have released some of the Israeli hostages it is holding, Israel would free some Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian groups would be given access for a major aid campaign in Loop.