Aid efforts intensify for famine-stalked Gaza as martyrs' toll at 31,341

GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Efforts grew on Thursday to get more aid into the war-devastated Gaza Strip, where the UN warns of famine and desperate residents have stormed relief shipments.

After mediators failed to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas militants for the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which started on Monday, fighting continued with at least 69 deaths over the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said.

Hamas authorities reported more than 40 air strikes across Gaza, from Beit Hanun in the north to Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge and Israel is threatening a ground invasion.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 31,341 people have been martyred in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants. The latest toll includes at least 69 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,134 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began on October 7.

The charity vessel Open Arms, pulling about 200 tonnes of food aid, was nearing Israel's coast after departing Cyprus on Tuesday, the Marinetraffic website showed on Thursday. Cyprus's foreign minister said a second, bigger vessel was being readied in Larnaca port for the maritime corridor which, senior United States administration officials have said, will later be complemented by a temporary pier off Gaza to be built by American troops. Daily aid airdrops by multiple nations have been taking place this month, and Germany said it would join the effort.

'No alternative'

But the air and sea missions are "no alternative" to land deliveries, 25 organisations including Amnesty International and Oxfam said in a statement. "While a convoy of five trucks has the capacity to carry about 100 tonnes of lifesaving assistance, recent airdrops delivered only a few tonnes of aid each," they said.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general, added that the international community seems to have accepted that the war will drag on. "Why are you making an investment that is going to take two months?" she asked, referring to the Pentagon's timeline for setting up the temporary pier which, it said, could enable the provision of more than two million meals a day.

'Humanitarian island'

The Spanish charity vessel Open Arms left Cyprus for Gaza on Tuesday. It is towing a barge with 200 tonnes of aid, marking the first voyage along the sea corridor. Open Arms is a partner of the American charity World Central Kitchen founded by Jose Andres. He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that a jetty to receive the aid had reached nearly 60 metres (yards) in length.

His post included images of a bulldozer working on a promontory whose location was not given.