AFP Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

Updated Saturday, March 9, 2024-11:15

Plans to deliver humanitarian aid by sea to the Gaza Strip, ravaged by

famine after five months of war

between Israel and Hamas, accelerated on Friday with the announcement of the opening of a maritime corridor from Cyprus and the construction of a port temporary.

"We are very close to the opening of this corridor, with a little luck it will be this Sunday," said the president of the European Commission,

Ursula von der Leyen

, during a visit to the port of Larnaca, in southern Cyprus.

The Mediterranean island, a member of the European Union, is

about 370 kilometers from Gaza

.

The details were not disclosed, although Von der Leyen noted that "a pilot operation" would be launched this Friday.

US President Joe Biden announced the day before that his country's army

would open a "temporary pier"

on the coast of Gaza to allow the entry of aid.

On Friday, he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should allow more

aid into the narrow territory

, ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since 2007.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of imminent famine in Gaza, which has been besieged and bombed by Israel since the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7.

Faced with this situation, several Arab and Western countries began

airdrops of humanitarian aid

.

But a parachute failure caused the death of five Palestinians on Friday.

"He fell like a rocket"

In addition, 10 people were injured in the Al Shati refugee camp as

a result of these launches

, said Mohammed al Sheikh, head emergency nurse at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

A witness told AFP that he decided to follow the aid dropped by parachute with his brother in the hope of grabbing "a bag of flour."

"Then suddenly

the parachute didn't open

and he fell like a rocket" into a house, Mohammed al Ghoul said.

Both the Jordanian military and a US defense official denied that their countries' planes caused the fatalities.

The airdrop was also carried out in collaboration with

Belgium, Egypt, France and the Netherlands

.

The UN, which insists that deliveries by air or sea cannot replace land deliveries, warns that

2.2 million of Gaza's 2.4 million

inhabitants are on the brink of famine.

The Pentagon explained that the construction of the temporary port will take "up to 60 days" and will require the participation of

"more than 1,000 American soldiers

," who will march when the work is completed, said its spokesman Pat Ryder.

Once operational, "it will be able to supply

more than two million meals a day

to the citizens of Gaza," this spokesperson added.

Israel, which has maintained a complete siege of the Palestinian enclave since October 9, "welcomed" the plan, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said in X.

The conflict was sparked when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The Islamists also

kidnapped around 250 people

.

Israel estimates that 99 are still held in Gaza, of which 31 have died.

In response, Israel launched an

air and ground operation in Gaza

, which has already left at least 30,878 dead, most of them women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry.

"There are no concessions"

The mediators in the conflict - the United States, Qatar and Egypt - tried this week in Cairo

to reach an agreement for a truce

before the start of Ramadan, a sacred holiday for Muslims that begins on Sunday or Monday, according to the lunar calendar.

"It seems difficult" to achieve it within this period, Biden acknowledged before the press on Friday.

The Hamas delegation -

considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the EU

- left the Egyptian capital after Israel did not meet its "minimum demands", according to a Palestinian official.

The armed wing of Hamas warned on Friday that it would not accept an exchange of hostages and prisoners without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

"Our top priority to achieve a prisoner exchange is a

complete cessation of aggression

and a withdrawal of the enemy and there are no concessions," Ezedin al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said in a video.

The situation is especially critical in northern Gaza, where the

delivery of aid by land is almost impossible

due to fighting, destruction and looting.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed on February 29 when the Israeli army

fired on a crowd waiting for

humanitarian aid convoys, according to Hamas.

The Israeli military said Friday that its "analysis" showed that its soldiers "

did not fire at the

humanitarian convoy" but rather "precisely targeted several suspects."