BRUSSELS: Belgium will take part in a multi-country operation coordinated by Jordan to airdrop aid to Gaza, the government announced Wednesday, as UN agencies warn the Palestinian territory is slipping into famine.
A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth some 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly “soon” to Jordan, and will remain on stand-by to conduct air drops in coordination with Amman, the defense and foreign ministries said in a statement.
Belgium joins a string of Western nations including France, Spain and Britain looking to send aid into Gaza by air as fears mount of mass starvation in the territory.
“These airdrops are a first step, but they can in no way be a cover for the urgent need to facilitate access by land,” Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said.
“I will continue to plead with the Israeli authorities to allow these deliveries to enter Gaza by road as quickly as possible.”
The World Food Programme, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization warned Tuesday that time was running out and that Gaza was “on the brink of a full-scale famine.”
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid rising fears of a wave of starvation.
Then on Sunday, faced with mounting international criticism, Israel began a series of “tactical pauses” while allowing aid trucks to pass through two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to conduct airdrops.
Deliveries have been ramped up, but the experts advising the UN said this effort would not prove enough unless aid agencies were granted “immediate, unimpeded” humanitarian access.
Belgium says will take part in Gaza aid-drop plan
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Belgium says will take part in Gaza aid-drop plan
- A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth some 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly “soon” to Jordan, and will remain on stand-by to conduct air drops in coordination with Amman
5 bodies of migrants washed ashore in east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, police officer says
TRIPOLI: At least five bodies of migrants including two women have been washed ashore in َQasr Al-Akhyar, a coastal town in the east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, a police officer told Reuters on Saturday.
Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of investigations at the Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, said that according to people in the area, a child’s body washed ashore and because of the waves’ height the body returned to the sea, and the coast guard was asked to search for it.
Ghawil said the bodies are all dark-skinned people. The bodies were found on Emhamid Al-Sharif shore in the western part of the town by people who reported to the police station.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Qaddafi to a NATO-backed uprising. Factional conflict has split the country into western and eastern factions since 2014.
Qasr Al-Akhyar is a coastal town some 73 kilometers (45 miles) east of Tripoli.
Pictures were posted on the Internet, and also seen by Reuters, showing the bodies of the migrants lying on the shore, where some were still within black inflatable lifebuoys.
“We reported to the Red Crescent to recover the bodies,” said Ghawil. “The bodies we found are still intact and we think there are more bodies to wash ashore.”
Earlier this month, fifty-three migrants, including two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Zuwara town in western Tripoli, the International Organization for Migration said.
Last week, a UN report said migrants in Libya, including young girls, are at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or put into domestic slavery, calling for a moratorium on the return of migrant boats to the country until human rights are ensured.
