Israel will allow ships from several European countries to deliver aid directly to war-torn Gaza, the country’s top diplomat said Sunday, as the Israeli military ramped up large-scale air attacks across central Gaza.
Ships from countries including France, Greece, the Netherlands and the U.K. can “immediately” start shipping aid packages via a proposed sea corridor that goes through Cyprus, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told local radio on Sunday. The measure could mean a partial lifting of Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, first imposed in 2007 after the Hamas militant group took control of the Palestinian enclave.
Under the plan, originally proposed by Nicosia last month, ships would travel to Cyprus for security checks before heading 370 kilometers to Gaza’s coast in a route that would avoid Egyptian or Israeli borders. Paris, Athens, Amsterdam and London have yet to officially comment on the plan, though the U.K. and Greece have previously indicated they would support the measure.
The announcement comes after the U.N. Security Council earlier this month demanded that Israel guarantee “immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” to the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets stepped up air strikes on Maghazi and Bureij in the center of Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 35 people, including former Religious Affairs Minister for the Palestinian Authority Youssef Salama, according to local media and hospital officials.
Israel has said it would keep fighting until it eliminates Hamas after the militant group launched a surprise attack on the country in early October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. Israel has said it has killed 8,000 Hamas fighters so far in its military offensive. Cohen said on Sunday that the “government bears responsibility” for failing to prevent the October 7 attack, and suggested an independent inquiry should be set up after the war.
Despite growing international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said the war would continue for “many more months.” Israel argues that ending the conflict now would mean victory for Hamas, a stance shared by the Biden administration, which at the same time has urged Israel to do more to avoid harm to Palestinian civilians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, meanwhile, urged Israeli resettlement of Gaza after the hostilities. The far-right politician told Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday that if Israel does the right thing, there will be an exodus of Palestinians “and we will live in the Gaza Strip.”
“We will not allow a situation in which two million people live there. If there are 100,000 to 200,000 Arabs living in Gaza, the discussion about the day after will be completely different,” Smotrich said. “They want to leave, they have been living in a ghetto and in suffering for 75 years,” he added.
Fearing a mass exodus, both Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept refugees from the embattled Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also said on Saturday that the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control.
Almost 22,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military response, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, 70 percent of whom are women and children — while 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced.
Victor Jack
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