As Palestinians begin to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israel reportedly launched new strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday (March 11).
In the weeks leading up to the ongoing violence, Egypt, the United States, Qatar, and others held multiple rounds of talks to secure a new ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group before Ramadan, including the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. and Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas negotiators said as they left talks in Cairo last week that ceasefire talks would resume this week.
The Israeli military said the strikes included airstrikes and ground attacks in Khan Younis and other areas of southern Gaza, as well as in central Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that 67 people had been killed in Israeli offensives over the past day, while at least 31,112 people had been killed since the conflict began in October.
A U.S. Army ship continues its journey into the Mediterranean to begin construction of a temporary dock on the Gaza coast to provide access to more humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.
The ultimate plan is to ship more food and medical supplies from neighboring Cyprus to the temporary terminal in Gaza. Israel will first inspect the shipments to ensure they do not contain weapons intended for Hamas militants.
The temporary terminal is urgently needed because Gaza has no port facilities. Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Gaza has been under an Israeli naval blockade and has almost no direct sea transportation.
A Spanish charity ship carrying food aid is expected to set sail from Cyprus soon. The non-governmental organization Open Arms said the ship will carry 200 tons of food provided by its partner, the US charity World Central Kitchen, and will be built on a temporary dock. Afterward, the food is unloaded on the Gaza coast.
The conflict between Israel and Kazakhstan began on October 7 last year. At that time, Hamas armed forces launched horrific terrorist attacks against Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli statistics, and taking approximately 250 hostages in Gaza.
The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving, while the number of aid trucks entering Gaza from land each day over the past five months has fallen far below the 500 a day before the conflict began due to Israeli restrictions and security concerns.
U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a joint humanitarian airdrop to Gaza on Sunday, dropping more than 11,500 meal boxes and other food, including rice, flour, pasta, and canned goods.
Officials, however, said the airdrops were not enough to meet Gaza’s widespread food needs. A day earlier, an air-dropped food pallet killed five people.
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