Israeli bombardments continued on Saturday March 16 in the Gaza Strip, where 36 members of the same family were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center during a night marked by 60 strikes air, according to the Hamas health ministry. Asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Israeli army did not confirm being behind the strike, indicating however that it had targeted “several terrorists holed up” in the Nuseirat camp.
Negotiations to reach a truce continue, while a first humanitarian aid boat finished unloading its cargo on Saturday in the Palestinian territory threatened by famine, and a second could leave soon.
On Saturday, families of hostages gathered in Tel Aviv to once again demand the release of their loved ones held in Gaza. “Everywhere we go…we talk about you, we sing for you and we pray for you,” they chanted.
After more than five months of war, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, mediator countries, are still trying to reach an agreement on a truce and an exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, after failing to do so before the start of Ramadan.
Hamas, which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 and until now demanded a definitive ceasefire from Israel before any agreement, said Friday it was ready for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages – women, children, the elderly and the sick – could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released.
The Israeli security cabinet will meet on Sunday to determine the position of the Israeli delegation to visit Qatar to negotiate an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners as part of a truce in Gaza, the office of Benjamin Netanyahu. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader, said he was opposed to sending this delegation: “Netanyahu must order (…) the army to immediately enter Rafah and intensify military pressure until Hamas is destroyed,” he wrote on X.
Stopping Saturday in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “pledged to continue coordination” with “regional and international partners” to “promote calm during the holy month of Ramadan » which began Monday, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Mr. Netanyahu on Friday approved the army’s “action plans” for an offensive in Rafah, where, according to the UN, around 1.5 million Palestinians are massed. This operation, against which the United States and the UN continue to warn, could take place in the absence of a truce agreement or afterwards.
The head of the World Health Organization on Saturday urged Israel to abandon an assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip “in the name of humanity.” “I am gravely concerned by reports of an Israeli plan to launch a ground attack on Rafah. A further escalation of violence in this densely populated area would lead to even more death and suffering,” wrote Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the social network X.
“The 1.2 million people in Rafah have no safe place to go, there are no fully functional and safe health facilities they could access elsewhere in Gaza,” he emphasizes. . “Many people are too fragile, hungry and sick to be displaced again,” insists the WHO chief.
In addition to raids and fighting, the UN fears widespread famine in the Palestinian territory. Humanitarian aid is transported by land and enters the south of the Gaza Strip after being inspected by Israel, but remains very insufficient compared to the needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants.
Having left Cyprus on Tuesday, a boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms carrying 200 tonnes of food from the organization World Kitchen Central (WCK) arrived on the coast of Gaza on Friday where it finished unloading its cargo on Saturday, distributed in twelve trucks. The aid is to be used to prepare meals for residents of the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is particularly catastrophic.
Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said on Saturday that a second aid boat was ready and would leave for Gaza this weekend. But, according to WCK, marine weather forecasts indicate bad weather between Sunday and the end of next week, which could delay its departure.
International efforts are increasing to try to deliver more aid, particularly by airdrops. Germany, which joined countries participating in an aid airlift from Jordan for the first time on Saturday, announced a first airdrop of four tonnes of food over northern Gaza. The UN, the EU, the United States and other countries insist, however, that the delivery of aid by air or sea could not replace land routes.
