GAZA: A Spanish charity ship taking food aid to Gaza left the Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Tuesday in an attempt to open a maritime corridor to the war-ravaged and besieged Palestinian territory. The vessel Open Arms set sail towing a barge loaded with 200 tons of relief goods and was expected to arrive off Gaza, about 400 km away, sometime overnight or Wednesday. “The departure of the first ship is a sign of hope,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media platform X. “We will work hard together for many more ships to follow.”

Heavy Zionist bombardment again rained down on Gaza, killing at least 80 people overnight, and dozens more were missing under the rubble, said the health ministry in the territory. “At least 80 martyrs arrived at hospitals, the majority of whom were children, women and the elderly, as a result of the occupation (Zionist entity) committing massacres against civilians,” it said in a statement.

The war and siege since Oct 7 leveled vast parts of the coastal strip and sparked dire food shortages that have led the UN World Food Program to warn that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza. As the flow of aid trucks from Egypt has slowed — a trend variously blamed on the war, the growing insecurity on the ground and cumbersome Zionist inspections of cargo – Western and Arab governments have stepped up airdrops.

However UN and other relief agencies warn that parachuting in aid parcels is less effective and falls far short of the hundreds of truckloads needed every day to sustain the population of 2.4 million people. The humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza at a time Muslims have since Monday observed the holy month of Ramadan, where daytime fasts are traditionally broken with lavish evening iftar meals with family and friends.

In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people have sought refuge in crowded shelters and makeshift tents, one displaced man, Mohammad Al-Masry, said this year the family had just “canned food and beans”. Another displaced man, Om Muhammad Abu Matar from Khan Yunis, told AFP that this year, Ramadan has “the taste of blood and misery, separation and oppression”.

The Zionist entity’s bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,112 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators failed to bring about a truce and hostage exchange deal ahead of Ramadan. UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for “silencing the guns” during the Muslim holy month and said he was “appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing”.

Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Zionist troops from Gaza, a demand labelled “delusional” by the Zionist entity, which accuses the group of seeking to stoke unrest during Ramadan. Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed, despite growing domestic and international opposition, to push on with the war to destroy Hamas and free the captives.

In an interview with Fox News, he doubled down on his plan to send troops into Rafah near the Egyptian border, the last area so far spared ground operations. “We can’t leave a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place, they’re there in Rafah,” the rightwing premier said, adding that “it’s either (the Zionist entity) or Hamas, there’s no middle way”.

He said the Zionist entity agreed with the United States on the need to “first enable the safe departure of the civilian population from Rafah before we go in”. Asked about apparent growing friction between him and US President Joe Biden, the premier said that “we have our agreements on the basic goals, but we also have disagreements on how to achieve them”.

The worst-ever Gaza war, now in its sixth month, has stoked anger and protests worldwide, most of them against the Zionist entity. It has also sparked clashes involving the Zionist entity’s regional enemies, a coalition of Iran-backed armed groups dubbed the Axis of Resistance including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Hezbollah said Tuesday it had launched more than 100 rockets at Zionist military positions in retaliation for a strike the previous day that killed one person near the eastern Lebanon city of Baalbek. Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking ships on the key Red Sea trade route leading towards the Suez Canal, in professed solidarity with the Palestinians, forcing many vessels to make the costlier journey around Africa.

US forces said Tuesday they had destroyed nearly 20 ballistic missiles and an underwater drone after the Houthis had fired two missiles, without causing casualties or damage, towards a Singaporean-owned, Liberian-flagged merchant ship called the Pinocchio. The Houthis said the attacks were “in support of the oppressed Palestinian people” and vowed that “military operations will be escalated... during the month of Ramadan”. – AFP