RABAT: Morocco has sent 40 tons of humanitarian supplies for Gaza via an Israeli airport, a diplomatic source said Tuesday, the latest bid to diversify aid routes into the war-battered territory.
The food aid has arrived at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv before being transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, the Moroccan diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Rabat’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “Morocco is the first country to transport its humanitarian aid via this unprecedented land route.”
Since the war began on October 7, aid trucks have generally entered the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
Israeli officials were unable to immediately confirm whether the Moroccan initiative was the first such land route for foreign aid through Israeli territory.
The diplomatic source said Morocco’s ties with Israel, formalized in a US-brokered normalization pact in 2020, helped the operation go ahead.
“Morocco has always said that its relationship with Israel is intended to serve peace in the region and the interests of the Palestinians,” the source said.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine in Gaza, under an Israeli siege imposed in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war, now in its sixth month.
Most aid enters through Rafah, on the Hamas-ruled territory’s southern border with Egypt, but UN and other relief agencies say only a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain Gaza’s population of 2.4 million people has made it in.
A Spanish charity boat carrying 200 tons of food aid to Gaza set sail on Tuesday from Cyprus in hopes of opening a maritime corridor to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis.
Also on Tuesday, four US Army vessels left the United States, carrying equipment to build a temporary port on Gaza’s shores for aid deliveries.
The war started with the October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,184 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Morocco inaugurates Gaza aid route via Israel
https://arab.news/ghnf6
Morocco inaugurates Gaza aid route via Israel
- The food aid has arrived at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv before being transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent
- Rabat’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “Morocco is the first country to transport its humanitarian aid via this unprecedented land route”
Israel blocks a Canadian delegation from visiting the occupied West Bank
- The Israeli statement said The Canadian-Muslim Vote receives the vast majority of its funding from Islamic Relief Canada, a subsidiary of Islamic Relief Worldwide that is listed as a terror entity by Israel
OTTAWA, Ontario: Israel on Tuesday blocked a private Canadian delegation that included six members of Parliament from entering the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Embassy in Canada said the group was denied entry because of its links to Islamic Relief Worldwide, a nongovernmental organization that Israel lists as a terror group.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in a post on social media that Canada has expressed its “objections regarding the mistreatment of these Canadians.”
Ontario Member of Parliament Iqra Khalid, from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal party, said she was part of the delegation and was shoved several times by Israeli border officials.
She said she was pushed after trying to check on a member of the roughly 30-person delegation who was pulled aside for additional questioning after the group had been at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Khalid said the border officials were able to see she was a lawmaker as they had taken her special passport, which looks different from a standard Canadian document.
The Israeli Embassy statement said Israel “will not allow the entry of organizations and individuals who are associated with designated terror entities.”
The delegation, sponsored by the group The Canadian-Muslim Vote, had planned to meet with displaced Palestinians in the West Bank, where the Israeli government recently approved the construction of 764 new homes in Jewish settlements.
The Israeli statement said The Canadian-Muslim Vote receives the vast majority of its funding from Islamic Relief Canada, a subsidiary of Islamic Relief Worldwide that is listed as a terror entity by Israel.
In Ottawa, the National Council of Canadian Muslims said the Israeli government’s refusal to allow Canadian parliamentarians into the country raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability.
British Columbia New Democrat Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan said the entire delegation had electronic travel authorizations to enter the West Bank but they were revoked “on the day of our arrival.”
In September, Canada joined several other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state, a significant shift in its policy and a move that came despite opposition from the United States. At the time, Canada said it hopes the recognition paves the way for peace based on two states living side by side.
