MEZIESBLOG

Aid for Gaza is being loaded onto a ship in Cyprus and will be delivered using a US pier.

Containers are being stacked on the US flagged Sagamore, which is docked at the port of Larnaca, and some containers to the ship are labelled as aid from the United Arab Emirates.

“We are completing the loading of aid onto a US vessel now in Larnaca and once the platform is in place this part of the process (shipment) can commence,” Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government spokesperson, said. 

It is unclear when the vessel will depart.

Cyprus opened a sea corridor in March to ship aid directly to Gaza, where deliveries via land have been severely disrupted the war.

US-based charity World Food Kitchen (WCK) used the route twice before seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on 1 April.

Gaza lacks port infrastructure and the US has built a custom made offshore jetty to take delivery of aid shipments.

Once delivered, aid will be offloaded onto US military vessels and then to a causeway where it will be loaded onto trucks for onward delivery.

No aid has come into Gaza through Kerem Shalom crossing, UNRWA says

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said no aid has crossed into Gaza yet via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Earlier today, Israel said it had reopened the border crossing and that aid trucks from Egypt were already undergoing inspections ahead of their arrival in Gaza. 

The crossing is a key terminal for the entry of humanitarian aid that was closed over the weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby. 

Israel says it has launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

At least 20 Hezbollah “terror targets” have been struck in Lebanon, the Israeli military has said. 

In a Telegram post, the Israel Defence Forces said military structures and “terrorist infrastructure” was hit in the southern Lebanese area of Ramyeh. 

During the strikes, “secondary explosions” were identified, it added, claiming they suggested weapon storage facilities were in the area. 

“In addition, IAF fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military structure and terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Marwahin and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon a short while ago,” it said. 

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, has regularly exchanged fire with Israel, but clashes have significantly increased since the 7 October Hamas attacks. 

No sign of breakthrough in ceasefire talks

Israel sees no sign of a breakthrough in the ceasefire talks taking place in Cairo, an official has said. 

Despite this, the official told Reuters a delegation of mid-level Israeli officials will stay in the Egyptian capital. 

On Monday, Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire deal put forward by mediators in Egypt and Qatar, but the proposal was rejected by Israel. 

Officials from the militant group and Israel flew to Cairo yesterday. 

Israel has ‘nothing to add’ to US halting some weapons

Israel has nothing to add to the decision by the US to halt the supply of some munitions, a government spokesperson has said.

The spokesperson went on to say he had heard the reports but added: “I personally and the Israeli government do not have anything to add on these reports”.

Earlier, it emerged the Biden administration had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns Israel would imminently attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah.