ROME: The UN’s food agency on Thursday said it was pressing Israel to allow it to use the Ashdod port north of Gaza to make it easier to reach starving Palestinians.
“We have several requests with the Israelis,” World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP in Rome, after its latest failed attempt to get food to northern Gaza.
“We want to use the Ashdod port, which would be much more efficient than going through Jordan or even Egypt,” Skau said.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza has been plunged into a food crisis, with outside aid severely restricted.
The UN estimates that 2.2 million people — most of Gaza’s population — are on the brink of famine, particularly in the north.
“There is catastrophic hunger situation. People are desperate and the tensions are high. And there is a complete breakdown also of civil order,” Skau said.
“In order to avert a famine, we need huge volumes of assistance. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people. Airdrops are not an option for averting famine,” he added.
Israeli forces have previously blocked UN aid at the Port of Ashdod, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Gaza.
“We want to get more goods over the border to Gaza. We are now using Kerem Shalom (border crossing), but we would like to have a crossing also directly into the north,” Skau said.
WFP’s last aid convoy was turned away by Israeli forces at a checkpoint to northern Gaza, after which it was looted by “desperate people,” the agency said Tuesday.
It was the first convoy attempted since the agency halted deliveries to the north of Gaza on February 20, after its convoy of trucks faced gunfire and looting.
UN urges Israel to allow aid to Gaza through port
https://arab.news/mwsfe
UN urges Israel to allow aid to Gaza through port
- WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said “We want to use the Ashdod port, which would be much more efficient than going through Jordan or even Egypt”
- “There is catastrophic hunger situation”
Vessel struck off Oman’s Muscat, UKMTO says
DUBAI: A vessel was struck on Sunday by an unknown projectile 50 nautical miles north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said.
The attack resulted in a fire in the vessel’s engine room that has been brought under control, UKMTO added.
It is the second incident the agency reports on Sunday after reporting an incident off Oman’s Kumzar in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state television said Sunday that an oil tanker was sinking after it was struck while attempting to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The incident took place as Iran exchanged strikes with the United States and Israel, who launched an attack Saturday that killed the Islamic republic’s supreme leader.
“The fate of the offending oil tanker that was struck while attempting to illegally pass through the Strait of Hormuz is that it is now sinking,” state TV reported, without elaborating.
It carried footage showing heavy black smoke emanating from the burning tanker at sea.
The strait carries a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of all liquified natural gas.
On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had warned that the vital waterway was unsafe due to US and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships.
