LARNACA: Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen expressed support during his visit to Cyprus on Wednesday for plans to send humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip from the Mediterranean island.
Cyprus has proposed establishing a corridor to collect, inspect, and store aid on the island before shipping it to Gaza.
Cohen, after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos, emphasised the need for an “organized and well-inspected” transfer of aid.
“We aim to create a fast track for humanitarian aid to Gaza through this corridor,” he told reporters.
The ministers visited a search and rescue coordination center in Larnaca, discussing logistical details for the plan. Cohen also inspected facilities at Larnaca port, the departure point for aid shipments.
Cyprus was ready to deliver large quantities of aid through this “maritime lifeline” expected to provide “a sustained flow of high-volume humanitarian assistance to the civilians” in Gaza, Kombos said.
“We look forward to your green light for the first voyage,” he told Cohen.
Under the plan, the aid would checked in Cyprus by a joint committee, including representatives from Israel.
The initiative aims to enhance humanitarian relief to Gaza by importing large volumes by ship instead of the limited deliveries by truck through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure that could speed up the dispatch of much-needed aid to Gaza, subjected to months of sustained Israeli bombardment.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza, in response to the October 7 attacks in which around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 abducted, according to the latest Israeli figures.
Its retaliatory aerial bombing and ground offensive has killed 19,667 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The Israeli response also left swathes of Gaza in ruins, including hospitals. The United Nations says it has also displaced 1.9 million of the territory’s 2.4 million people.
Forced into overcrowded shelters, the displaced have struggled to find fuel, food, water and medical care.
Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides has promoted his Gaza initiative among fellow EU leaders and friendly Arab states, and Larnaca was chosen due to its proximity to the Middle East.
The city is also home to the island’s international airport, expected to receive aid from other countries.
Israeli FM backs plan to ‘fast track’ Gaza aid via Cyprus
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Israeli FM backs plan to ‘fast track’ Gaza aid via Cyprus
- Cyprus has proposed establishing a corridor to collect, inspect, and store aid on the island before shipping it to Gaza
- Cohen, after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos, emphasised the need for an “organized and well-inspected” transfer of aid
Video shows armed men beating a Palestinian in West Bank
- The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said
TEL AVIV: Dozens of masked men armed with sticks beat and injured a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when they attacked a plant nursery, according to people who saw the attack and video footage obtained by The Associated Press.
Video filmed by security cameras shows men dressed mostly in black, faces covered, with several hitting and kicking a man on the ground.
Two witnesses who are members of the family that owns the facility said Israeli settlers beat 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin as he was trying to flee the German-Palestinian-run nursery in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
BACKGROUND
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.
Workers fled when they saw the settlers coming on Thursday but Yassin is deaf and couldn’t hear the warnings to leave, one family member said.
The witnesses said Yassin was in the hospital with broken bones in his hand and other injuries to his face, chest and back. Four cars at the nursery were burned.
The attack is the latest in rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, where assaults increased during the Palestinian olive harvest in October and have continued.
Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the perpetrators “a handful of extremists” and urged law enforcement to pursue them for “the attempt to take the law into their own hands.”
But rights groups and Palestinians say the problem is far greater than a few bad actors, and attacks have become a daily phenomenon across the territory.
Israel’s army said it dispatched soldiers to the Shavei Shomron junction — close to the area of Thursday’s attack — following reports of dozens of masked Israelis vandalizing property.
The army said it apprehended three suspects who were taken to police for questioning. It said security forces condemn violence of any kind.
According to one of the family members who own the nursery, it was the third time in a year that the facility was attacked.
The previous incident was in September and cost the business more than $600,000 as offices and facilities were damaged, he said.
In the video of Thursday’s attack, Yassin runs from a group of masked people before falling to the ground.
One man kicks him and another hits him twice with what appears to be a stick. Yassin stays on his knees as he’s struck again and then places his hands on the ground.
As the men are leaving, one kicks him in the head while others strike him again until he’s seen lying on the pavement.
