Gaza truce efforts revived as first sea aid unloaded, martyrs' toll at 31,553
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle on Saturday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where the first food shipment by sea reached shore.
Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on a possible deal. It also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 31,553 people have been martyred in the territory during more than five months of war. The latest toll includes at least 63 deaths in the previous 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,546 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
The US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Saturday said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus. "All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," WCK said in a statement. WCK's partner, the Open Arms vessel which towed the aid on a barge, had sailed from Larnaca port on Tuesday.
The United Nations has reported particular difficulty in accessing the besieged Gaza Strip's north for deliveries of food and other aid. Residents say they have resorted to eating wild plants and animal fodder, and some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through. "Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies," Dominic Allen, of the United Nations Population Fund, said after visiting Gaza's north.
'God help us'
With the situation increasingly dire, donors have turned to the air and sea. Multiple nations have begun daily aid airdrops over Gaza. Germany's air force said on Saturday it successfully made its first delivery over north Gaza. The new maritime corridor is to be complemented by a temporary pier which United States troops are on their way to build.
But air and sea missions are no alternative to land deliveries, UN officials and aid groups say. Humanitarians have cited Israeli restrictions as among the obstacles they face. The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 63 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
Earlier Saturday, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra reported 36 deaths from a strike on a house sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, central Gaza. AFPTV images showed a building blown apart. Yussef Tabatibi, lifting concrete blocks among the rubble, said residents were trying to recover the dead with only their bare hands. "What should we do? God help us," he said. Witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip's main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north.
