Aid boat bound for Gaza as UN agency chief decries 'war on children'

A Spanish charity boat taking food to Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in hopes of opening a maritime corridor to carry sorely needed aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

In a sign of worsening humanitarian conditions more than five months into the war, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said "the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration rose to 27", most of them children.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, called for a ceasefire "now for the sake of children in Gaza", even as mediator Qatar said the warring sides were "not near" a new truce deal.

In a post on social media platform X, Lazzarini cited UN and Gaza health ministry figures that suggest more children had been killed in Gaza between October and February "than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world combined".

"This war is a war on children," he said.

The Open Arms aid boat which set sail from Larnaca port on the Mediterranean is part of efforts to diversify aid access into Gaza, as the flow of trucks has slowed.

Some Western and Arab governments have opted for more aid airdrops, the latest announced Tuesday by Jordan and the United States.

Morocco has sent a plane loaded with 40 tonnes of relief supplies directly to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, a diplomatic source said, a bid to bypass bottlenecks on the Egypt-Gaza border blamed in part on cumbersome Israeli inspections.

The Moroccan aid would be transferred via Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, the source said.

The UN aid coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, and head of the United Nations Office for Project Services, Jorge Moreira da Silva, said in a joint statement they "welcome the opening of a maritime corridor", but cautioned it may not be enough.

"For aid delivery at scale there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza," they said.

- 'Manmade' crisis -

Heavy Israeli bombardment again rained down on Gaza, killing at least 80 people overnight Monday-Tuesday, said the territory's health ministry.

The army said its forces raided targets across Gaza including a military compound in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

The war since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel has levelled vast parts of the coastal strip and sparked dire food shortages that have led the UN World Food Programme to warn "famine is imminent" in northern Gaza.

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told the UN Security Council that "starvation is being used as a war arm".

"This humanitarian crisis... is manmade," he said, noting that "the natural way of providing support through roads is being closed, artificially closed."

The Open Arms is towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of relief goods for the sea journey of about 400 kilometres (250 miles), as US charity World Central Kitchen said work was "underway" in Gaza on a jetty to unload the shipment.

Cyprus said it was preparing to send a second vessel.

The humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza at a time Muslims have since Monday observed the month of Ramadan, where daytime fasts are traditionally broken with lavish evening iftar meals with family and friends.

In Gaza's southern city of Rafah -- now home to nearly 1.5 million people, many of whom have sought refuge in crowded shelters and makeshift tents -- one man, Mohammad al-Masry, said this year the family had just "canned food and beans".

Abu Muhammad, displaced to Rafah from Beit Hanun in the north, said severe shortages had driven up the prices of basic commodities.

"Many things are out of reach" even for Gazans receiving a monthly salary, he said near a stall offering traditional sweets.

Vendor Muhammad al-Mashal said he was "ashamed and close to tears" to name the price for qatayef which has more than tripled since Ramadan last year.

"Only a few" people can afford it now, said Mashal.

- Netanyahu doubles down -

The war started with the October 7 Hamas attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 32 presumed dead.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed 31,184 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.

Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators failed to bring about a truce and hostage exchange deal ahead of Ramadan.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that, although talks between the parties continued, "we are not near a deal".

Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed to push on with the war.

"We will destroy Hamas, free our hostages and ensure that Gaza doesn't ever pose a threat to Israel again," he said in a speech via video link to a pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

"We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm's way."

The war, now in its sixth month, has stoked violence involving Iran-backed armed groups across the region including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi rebels.

Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon, far from the border, killed two people, Lebanese sources said, in escalating tit-for-tat fire after Hezbollah said it had launched "more than 100" rockets at Israeli military positions.

Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, where police said a 12-year-old boy died after being shot by Israeli border police during clashes at a refugee camp on Tuesday.

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