Humanitarian aid began arriving in the devastated Gaza Strip on Saturday via a renovated makeshift ferry, the US military said.
The ferry, built by the US military to boost the supply of much-needed relief supplies, was only operational for a short time before it was damaged by a storm in late May. After repairs, the pipeline was reestablished on Friday.
The crew on Saturday morning delivered nearly 492 tons (1.1 million pounds) of “critically needed humanitarian assistance” via the ferry, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a social media post.
support groups and United Nations They have accused Israel of delaying the delivery of water, food, medicine and fuel to Gaza, depriving the territory’s 2.4 million people of life-saving supplies.
The reopening of the ferry came on the same day Israel launched an operation to rescue four hostages from a refugee camp in central Gaza, where a Hamas-run media office said 210 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks.
Centcom emphasized that the pier, its personnel and property were in no way connected with the hostage rescue operation.
The Israeli military said the four hostages, who were “in good health condition”, were abducted from a Nova music festival during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, which is now in its ninth month.
Noa Arghamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued in a complex daytime operation from two separate buildings in the heart of the Nuseirat camp, the army said.
They are among seven captives freed alive by the Israeli military after Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage in an attack on southern Israel in October.
There are now 116 hostages left in Gaza, 41 of whom the army says are dead.
Footage posted on social media showed people on the beach in Tel Aviv jumping in joy when a lifeguard broke the news.
“For the past year we have been thinking about these hostages every day – if even a few of them are saved despite all the difficulties, it will be a huge thing for us,” Israeli Uria Bekenstein, 42, told AFP.
The Hamas media office in Gaza said that “the number of victims of the Israeli occupation’s massacre in the Nuseirat camp has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded”.
Israeli police said one officer was seriously injured during the rescue operation.
The attack came despite growing international pressure on Israel following a deadly assault on a UN-run school in Nuseirat, where displaced Gazans were sheltering.
Ceasefire ‘necessary’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces regular protests demanding a ceasefire deal to bring detainees back home, and demonstrators rallied again in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
A banner at the protest read, “Noa (Argamani) is home! We want them all!”
On Saturday, Netanyahu pledged to return the remaining detainees.
His office also released a video of his conversation with Arghamani on a mobile telephone.
He said he was “very excited” to return home, adding: “I haven’t spoken Hebrew in a very long time.”
US President Joe Biden welcomed the rescue operation, saying: “We will not stop working until all the hostages return home and there is a ceasefire. This needs to happen.”
He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: “We are delighted at the release of the four Israeli hostages.”
On Saturday, a photographer near Nuseirat saw large numbers of Palestinians fleeing the Bureij camp on foot, fearing further Israeli attacks.
The action comes days after an Israeli attack on the Nusserat school, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which a Gaza hospital said killed 37 people and which the army said targeted “terrorists”.
UNRWA condemned Israel for attacking the facility, which it said was housing 6,000 displaced people.
Israel has accused Hamas and its Gaza-based allies of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational bases, a charge the militants deny.
The war has caused widespread devastation in Gaza, where one in 20 people has died or been wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced.
Gaza City resident Yusuf al-Dalu said his neighbor’s house was reduced to rubble in an airstrike overnight. Emergency services reported five people were killed.
“This house is only inhabited by unarmed civilians who are not part of any resistance group,” Dalu told AFP.
‘Challenges remain’
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,801 people in Gaza, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel faces diplomatic isolation, is being accused of war crimes in international courts and several European countries have recognised the Palestinian state.
Thousands marched in London on Saturday demanding a ceasefire, and protesters gathered outside the White House to protest Washington’s support for Israel amid Gaza’s deadliest war yet.
Facing political pressure, Netanyahu called on war cabinet minister Benny Gantz “not to leave the emergency government”, while last month he threatened to resign if a post-war plan for Gaza was not approved by June 8.
Earlier, Gantz cancelled a press conference scheduled for Saturday, where Israeli media had speculated he would announce his resignation.
In brief remarks on Israeli television on Saturday evening, Gantz urged his colleagues in the government to “look responsibly” at “how we can move forward from here”.
Efforts to mediate a ceasefire, the first in the conflict since a weeks-long pause in November, appeared to have stalled after Biden offered the latest plan for a multi-phase ceasefire and hostage release.
The key issues include Hamas’ insistence on a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza – demands that Israel has rejected.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar starting on Monday.
The ferry, built by the US military to boost the supply of much-needed relief supplies, was only operational for a short time before it was damaged by a storm in late May. After repairs, the pipeline was reestablished on Friday.
The crew on Saturday morning delivered nearly 492 tons (1.1 million pounds) of “critically needed humanitarian assistance” via the ferry, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a social media post.
support groups and United Nations They have accused Israel of delaying the delivery of water, food, medicine and fuel to Gaza, depriving the territory’s 2.4 million people of life-saving supplies.
The reopening of the ferry came on the same day Israel launched an operation to rescue four hostages from a refugee camp in central Gaza, where a Hamas-run media office said 210 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks.
Centcom emphasized that the pier, its personnel and property were in no way connected with the hostage rescue operation.
The Israeli military said the four hostages, who were “in good health condition”, were abducted from a Nova music festival during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, which is now in its ninth month.
Noa Arghamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued in a complex daytime operation from two separate buildings in the heart of the Nuseirat camp, the army said.
They are among seven captives freed alive by the Israeli military after Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage in an attack on southern Israel in October.
There are now 116 hostages left in Gaza, 41 of whom the army says are dead.
Footage posted on social media showed people on the beach in Tel Aviv jumping in joy when a lifeguard broke the news.
“For the past year we have been thinking about these hostages every day – if even a few of them are saved despite all the difficulties, it will be a huge thing for us,” Israeli Uria Bekenstein, 42, told AFP.
The Hamas media office in Gaza said that “the number of victims of the Israeli occupation’s massacre in the Nuseirat camp has risen to 210 martyrs and more than 400 wounded”.
Israeli police said one officer was seriously injured during the rescue operation.
The attack came despite growing international pressure on Israel following a deadly assault on a UN-run school in Nuseirat, where displaced Gazans were sheltering.
Ceasefire ‘necessary’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces regular protests demanding a ceasefire deal to bring detainees back home, and demonstrators rallied again in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
A banner at the protest read, “Noa (Argamani) is home! We want them all!”
On Saturday, Netanyahu pledged to return the remaining detainees.
His office also released a video of his conversation with Arghamani on a mobile telephone.
He said he was “very excited” to return home, adding: “I haven’t spoken Hebrew in a very long time.”
US President Joe Biden welcomed the rescue operation, saying: “We will not stop working until all the hostages return home and there is a ceasefire. This needs to happen.”
He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: “We are delighted at the release of the four Israeli hostages.”
On Saturday, a photographer near Nuseirat saw large numbers of Palestinians fleeing the Bureij camp on foot, fearing further Israeli attacks.
The action comes days after an Israeli attack on the Nusserat school, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which a Gaza hospital said killed 37 people and which the army said targeted “terrorists”.
UNRWA condemned Israel for attacking the facility, which it said was housing 6,000 displaced people.
Israel has accused Hamas and its Gaza-based allies of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational bases, a charge the militants deny.
The war has caused widespread devastation in Gaza, where one in 20 people has died or been wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced.
Gaza City resident Yusuf al-Dalu said his neighbor’s house was reduced to rubble in an airstrike overnight. Emergency services reported five people were killed.
“This house is only inhabited by unarmed civilians who are not part of any resistance group,” Dalu told AFP.
‘Challenges remain’
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,801 people in Gaza, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel faces diplomatic isolation, is being accused of war crimes in international courts and several European countries have recognised the Palestinian state.
Thousands marched in London on Saturday demanding a ceasefire, and protesters gathered outside the White House to protest Washington’s support for Israel amid Gaza’s deadliest war yet.
Facing political pressure, Netanyahu called on war cabinet minister Benny Gantz “not to leave the emergency government”, while last month he threatened to resign if a post-war plan for Gaza was not approved by June 8.
Earlier, Gantz cancelled a press conference scheduled for Saturday, where Israeli media had speculated he would announce his resignation.
In brief remarks on Israeli television on Saturday evening, Gantz urged his colleagues in the government to “look responsibly” at “how we can move forward from here”.
Efforts to mediate a ceasefire, the first in the conflict since a weeks-long pause in November, appeared to have stalled after Biden offered the latest plan for a multi-phase ceasefire and hostage release.
The key issues include Hamas’ insistence on a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza – demands that Israel has rejected.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar starting on Monday.
