GAZA: Deadly fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday between Zionist forces and Hamas militants, with no truce in sight as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan neared and a dire humanitarian crisis gripped the besieged Palestinian territory.

A Spanish charity ship with food aid prepared to sail from the Mediterranean island-nation of Cyprus to help alleviate the suffering in the coastal Gaza Strip, now in its sixth month of war. The non-governmental group Open Arms said its boat would pull a barge with 200 tons of food, which its partner the US charity World Central Kitchen would then unload on the shores of Gaza.

Vessel tracking websites showed the Open Arms still in Larnaca on Sunday evening. It was expected to depart “in the coming hours”, Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told Cyprus News Agency.

With the UN repeatedly warning of famine, United States, Jordanian and other planes again airdropped food aid, but the United Nation’s aid coordinator for the area has said more supply by land is the best way to get assistance to territory’s 2.4 million people.

The war has killed 31,045 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza where vast swathes have been reduced to a bombed-out wasteland. Weeks of talks involving United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have aimed for a six-week truce and the release of many of the roughly 100 hostages Hamas is still holding in return for Palestinian prisoners released from Zionist jails. There have been no results as of the time this story was published.

The widely shared target had been to halt the fighting by the start of Ramadan, which is expected to begin as early as Monday depending on the first sighting of the crescent moon. Both sides have blamed each other for failing to reach a deal, after the Zionist entity had demanded a full list of surviving hostages, and Hamas had called for the entity to pull out all its troops from Gaza.

Attention during the Muslim fasting month will focus on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem, a frequent flashpoint in the past as it is both Islam’s third holiest site and sacred to Jews who call it the Temple Mount. A source with knowledge of the truce talks told AFP that “there will be a diplomatic push especially in the next 10 days” with a view to securing a deal within the first half of Ramadan as negotiations between all parties continued.

‘Enough of this war!’

United States President Joe Biden reiterated on Saturday that the Zionist entity has “a right to continue to pursue Hamas”, but also stressed his growing impatience with the entity’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With the death toll ever-increasing, Biden told broadcaster MSNBC that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.

At this stage, said Biden, Netanyahu’s approach to the war was “hurting (the Zionist entity) more than helping (the Zionist entity)”. The comments came after Zionist protesters again took to the streets of Tel Aviv for anti-government rallies, joined by some of the desperate families and friends of hostages still held by Hamas. Biden also signaled he would be willing to speak directly to the Zionist people through an address to the Knesset legislature.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the United Nations agency had delivered some medical supplies and fuel to two hospitals in northern Gaza on Saturday. But he added that “we need sustained, safe access to health facilities in order to supply them with urgently needed lifesaving healthcare on a regular basis,” and called for a ceasefire.

The UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing northern Gaza. The territory’s health ministry said at least 23 children have died from malnutrition and dehydration. In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, resident Mumen Ahmed told AFP a strike hit a packed car on Sunday morning, causing “a martyr and casualties”. “We expected with the arrival of Ramadan that the war would end,” said Ahmed, displaced from Gaza City. “Enough of this war!” — AFP