Israeli troops conduct ground and air operations in central and southern Gaza

The Israeli military on Thursday reported ground operations and airstrikes in central and southern Gaza Strip.

The IDF said the operations included a raid in Khan Yunis to destroy a rocket launcher.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel must put the well-being of Palestinian civilians “first” as it wages war against Hamas in Gaza.

“We look to the Israeli government to ensure that this is a priority. To protect civilians and get people the assistance they need,” he told reporters after a virtual meeting with international counterparts.

“This must be the first priority, even as they take the necessary actions to defend the country and counter the threat posed by Hamas.”

The top US diplomat met via video conference with ministers from Cyprus, Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the European Union and the United Nations to discuss a new maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza.

“When completed, the corridor will be able to distribute up to 2 million meals per day, as well as medicine, water and other critical humanitarian supplies,” Blinken said.

The U.S. military has sent a ship to the Mediterranean to build a temporary dock on Gaza’s coastline to provide access for more aid trucks, but said the dock could take two months to complete.

On Wednesday, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Israeli forces attacked a food distribution center east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least one worker and injuring 22 others.

Blinken said the incident demonstrated the need for better and sustained deconfliction of humanitarian workers.

Ciaran Donnelly, the International Rescue Committee’s vice president for crisis response, told reporters at a news conference that the recent use of airdrops to deliver food “is unsafe for those who have to scramble to receive it.” , expensive, ineffective and undignified”. ground. “

“This is a last resort for aid agencies in crises around the world and should not be the first choice for agencies in Gaza,” he said.

Disaster relief work

A Spanish charity ship carrying more than 200 tons of humanitarian food aid is en route from Cyprus to Gaza, the latest effort to feed tens of thousands of Palestinians the United Nations says are starving.

The food, collected by World Central Kitchen, a charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, was towed on a barge to an undisclosed location on the Gaza coast by a ship belonging to Spanish aid organization Open Arms . The 400-kilometer voyage is expected to take two to three days after launching on Tuesday.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Combos told state radio that a second ship was being loaded in Cyprus and would soon make the same trip. “We are working hard to ensure that the first shipments arrive safely and then be distributed safely,” Combs said later in a speech in Beirut.

“If everything goes to plan… we have established mechanisms for a second, larger shipment and then we will try to make this a more systematic operation to increase the volume,” he said.

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza reported on Wednesday that a further 88 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli offensives over the past day. According to the ministry, the total number of Palestinian deaths since the war broke out in early October is at least 31,272, with another 73,000 injured. It makes no distinction between civilians and combatants.

On October 7, Hamas militants crossed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage. After that, Israel began to take military operations to eliminate Hamas.

State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching and White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this article. This report contains information from The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.