Israel-Hamas war: First ship unloads Gaza aid

The head of the World Health Organization has appealed to Israel to call off its planned assault on Rafah, a southern city in the Gaza Strip where most of the population has sheltered.

"I'm gravely concerned about reports of an Israeli plan to proceed with a ground assault on Rafah," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Further escalation of violence in this densely populated area would lead to many more deaths and suffering," he added, before appealing to Israel "not to proceed and instead to work towards peace." 

Some 1.2 million Gaza residents are sheltering in Rafah, after being forced from their homes over the past five months due to Israel's ongoing offensive against the Palestinian militant group
Hamas.

Israel's aerial bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza has killed at least 31,553 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the military's planned offensive in Rafah but gave no details of when the action may begin.

The United Nations and the United States have also repeatedly warned against a military operation in Rafah, saying those displaced in the city have nowhere safe to flee.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a swift cease-fire in Gaza as he prepared to visit the crisis-ridden region.

"It would be important for an agreement to be reached very quickly now on a cease-fire that would enable the hostages to be released and at the same time allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza," Scholz said ahead of a two-day trip to Jordan and Israel.

A cease-fire was needed that would last "for the foreseeable future," said Scholz, as it would allow aid to reach Gaza on a "larger scale."

At the same time, the chancellor again warned Israel against conducting a military operation in Rafah in the south of Gaza.

"We are concerned about the further progress of military developments," Scholz said. "In particular, there is a danger that a comprehensive offensive in Rafah could result in many terrible civilian casualties, which must be avoided at all costs."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for a military offensive in Rafah on Friday.

More than 1 million Gaza residents have, so far, sought refuge in Rafah as Israel's military swept across the territory to root out the ruling Palestinian militant group, Hamas.

Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in Gaza are expected to restart in Qatar on Sunday, news agencies have reported citing several sources.

Reuters cited a source as saying that the head of Israel's spy agency Mossad, Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian officials would meet in Doha on Sunday to focus on the remaining gaps between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, including prisoner releases and humanitarian aid.

The Associated Press cited Egyptian officials as saying talks would resume Sunday, noting how Hamas had given mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting.

A Hamas official told AFP news agency that the proposal includes a six-week cease-fire that would see the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.

In November, there was a nearly one-week truce in the conflict, which both sides failed to extend. Repeated efforts this year to agree on a cease-fire and exchange hostages for prisoners have fallen apart, despite mounting international pressure over the human cost of Israel's offensive in Gaza.

The German military has started airdropping aid supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip, the Bundeswehr has said.

The German air force has deployed two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to the region to carry out the airdrops. Each aircraft can transport up to 18 tons of cargo.

"Our #C130 aircraft dropped 4 tons of urgently needed food over northern Gaza," the Luftwaffe said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. "From a height of about 1000 meters, we delivered the 4 pallets with pinpoint accuracy."

The aircraft took off from Jordan, the first country to airdrop aid to Gaza in November.

Other countries have since delivering aid by air, including the United States and France.

One in three children under 2 years of age in northern Gaza is now "acutely malnourished," UNICEF said.

The UN children's fund conducted nutrition screenings in the northern part of the strip in February. It found that 31% of children under 2 years old suffered from acute malnutrition, up from 15.6% in January.

"Doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies," Dominic Allen of the United Nations Population Fund said after visiting Gaza's north.

At least 23 children in northern Gaza have reportedly died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks, UNICEF said.

"The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away," said Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director.

Even in the southern area of Rafah, which has the most access to aid, some 10% of children under 2 years old were acutely malnourished in February, double the number from January.

"Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in #Gaza," said the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) posted on X, formerly Twitter. "Famine is looming. There is no time to waste."

A US charity that provided food and humanitarian supplies to the first aid ship to arrive in Gaza announced on Saturday that the vessel was fully unloaded hours after reaching the besieged enclave's shores. 

"All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," World Central Kitchen said in a statement.

The Open Arms ship, operated by a Spanish NGO of the same name, was carrying almost 200 tons of food.

World Kitchen Central was preparing a second ship to Gaza, also due to take off from Cyprus. However, it said it had "no information to release on when our second boat and the crew ship will be able to embark."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Jordan on Saturday to meet with King Abdullah II.

He is then set to travel to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Sunday.

Scholz's office said he will use the trip to push for more aid to be delivered to Gaza and to warn Israel against a ground offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"Humanitarian efforts must be significantly improved... that is what [Scholz] will make clear in his talks in Israel," a government spokesperson said Friday.

Militant Islamist group Hamas condemned the appointment of a new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority earlier this week.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas appointed his longtime economic adviser Mohammed Mustafa to be prime minister after the government, which controls the West Bank, resigned three weeks earlier.

"Making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance, like forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of a policy of exclusion and the deepening of division," said Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Hamas is categorized as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, Germany and others.

The statement was also signed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; both groups are also included on the US and EU terror lists. The Palestinian National Initiative political party also signed the condemnation. 

Later on Friday, Abbas' Fatah political party hit back, accusing Hamas of "having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza" by "undertaking the October 7 adventure."

"The real disconnection from reality and the Palestinian people is that of the Hamas leadership," Fatah said in a statement.

Hamas terror attacks on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and some 240 more were taken hostage.

The first ship to use a new humanitarian corridor from Cyprus began unloading aid in Gaza on Friday, the Israeli military said.

The vessel brought 200 tons of food, including rice, flour, lentils, beans, tuna and canned meat, to people in Gaza threatened by starvation.

The ship was operated by Spanish aid group Open Arms, and the food was sent by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.

Andres celebrated the arrival of aid to Gaza and said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the food would be loaded onto 12 trucks for distribution. He called the initial delivery a test and said, "We could bring thousands of tons a week."

The Israeli military said the "vessel underwent a comprehensive security inspection" and added that it had deployed troops to "secure the area."

According to the United Nations, before the current conflict started following Hamas' terror attacks in southern Israel on October 7, about 500 trucks crossed into Gaza with food and other goods each day.

zc/sms (AP, AFP, DPA, Reuters)