The Israel-Hamas War Rages in Besieged Gaza on the Eve of Ramadan

AFP/APP
Palestinian: Deadly fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, with no truce in sight on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as a dire humanitarian crisis gripped the besieged Palestinian territory.
A Spanish charity ship with food aid is prepared to sail from Cyprus to the coastal Gaza Strip, where the UN has repeatedly warned of famine.
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October, when Israel placed Gaza under a near-total siege.
About 370 kilometers (230 miles) from Cyprus across the Mediterranean Sea, Mohammed Harara stood on the shores of Gaza, hoping for aid to arrive.
“I’ve been waiting since this morning because tomorrow is the start of the holy month of Ramadan and the situation is very tragic,” he said.
The non-governmental group Open Arms said its boat would pull a barge with 200 tons of food, which its partner, the US charity World Central Kitchen, would then unload on Gaza’s shores.
It was expected to depart “within the coming hours,” Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told Cyprus News Agency.
Jordanian, United States, French, Belgian, and Egyptian planes parachuted aid over northern Gaza on Sunday, but the United Nations’s aid coordinator for the area has said more supply by land is the best way to get assistance to the territory’s 2.4 million people.