London: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Sunday warned the “prospect of famine is real” in Gaza, as a Royal Navy ship headed to the Mediterranean to help set up a maritime aid corridor.
Cameron said Britain was working with the United States, Cyprus and others to set up a “new temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to get aid in as quickly and securely as possible.”
“We need to continue to explore all options, including by sea and air, to ease the desperate plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people,” he said.
Cyprus has vowed to continue with the humanitarian corridor despite the killing in an Israeli strike of seven aid workers unloading aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
The seven workers, including three Britons, from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity died Monday as they left a warehouse having unloaded aid delivered by ship.
The UK also announced £9.7m for aid, equipment and expertise to help set up the maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza.
A first vessel, organized by the Spanish charity Open Arms and WCK, successfully delivered its cargo to Gaza on March 15 using the corridor. The second left Cyprus on March 30.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said Monday that preparations were underway for a third voyage and Cyprus was coordinating with the United States, which has sent military engineers to build a port in Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries.
With the situation in Gaza increasingly dire, donors have pursued alternatives including airdrops and maritime shipments.
But aid groups have been critical saying airdrops and maritime deliveries cannot make up for the lack of aid being delivered overland, which is at a fraction of its pre-war levels according to the UN.
The Gaza war broke out on October 7 with an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants into Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants also took more than 250 hostages, and 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,137 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
UK foreign minister warns of ‘real’ Gaza famine threat
https://arab.news/ps7hb
UK foreign minister warns of ‘real’ Gaza famine threat
- UK announced £9.7m for aid, equipment and expertise to help set up the maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s memoir recounts her journey after her son’s abduction by Hamas
- Random House announced Thursday that “When We See You Again” will be published April 26
- “I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness,” Goldberg-Polin said
NEW YORK: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who has become known worldwide for her advocacy on behalf of her son and others abducted by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, has a memoir coming out this spring.
Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Thursday that “When We See You Again” will be published April 26.
“I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness,” Goldberg-Polin, a Chicago-born educator who now lives in Jerusalem, said in a statement. “This book recounts the first steps of a million-mile odyssey that will take the rest of my life to walk on shattered feet.”
Goldberg-Polin also will narrate the audio edition of “When We See You Again.”
Her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was attending a southern Israel music festival when militants loaded him and other hostages onto the back of a pickup truck. Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, traveled the world calling for the release of Hersh and others, meeting with President Joe Biden and Pope Francis, speaking at the United Nations and appearing at protest rallies. Each morning, she would write down on a piece of masking tape the number of days her son had been in captivity and stick it on her chest.
She continued her efforts after Israeli officials announced in September 2024 that the bodies of her son and five others had been found in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forensics experts said they had been shot at close range. Tens of thousands crowded into a Jerusalem cemetery as Hersh was laid to rest.
According to Random House, Rachel Goldberg-Polin will tell her story in “raw, unflinching, deeply moving prose.”
“She describes grief from within the midst of suffering, giving voice to the broken as she pours her pain, love, and longing onto the page,” announcement reads in part. “It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.”
