Britain will send a warship to a hot spot: military operations are ordered to begin

Britain’s Royal Navy was ordered into action on Saturday to help deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza, and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron warned that the Palestinian people trapped there were on the brink of famine.

With the UK and US governments under intense pressure to stop selling arms to Israel, Downing Street said on Saturday ministers would instead step up support for a planned new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza to deliver “life-saving assistance” by sea to a population in dire need of basic food products.

Announcing the urgent deployment of a Royal Navy ship and £9.7 million in aid, Foreign Office chief Cameron said: “The situation in Gaza is dire and the threat of famine is real. We remain committed to helping those who so desperately need it.”

Defense Secretary Grant Shepps said the naval ship was already en route to the Eastern Mediterranean.

In an operation first announced by Joe Biden at the start of Ramadan last month, the US, UK, EU and other partners will build a new temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, from where aid can be delivered directly to the blocked area without the risk of it being sent back at the beginning of the month. border. The shipments will be inspected by Israeli officials in Larnaca before shipment.

The move follows a wave of international outrage over the Israeli military’s killing last week of seven aid workers, three of them British, employed by the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), which has just sent a second ship and a tugboat carrying 400 million tonnes to Gaza. humanitarian aid – enough to feed 1 million people – after a successful pilot launched last month.

Since then, the organization and several other institutions have suspended their activities in the Palestinian territory, further increasing the risk of famine for 2.3 million people, writes The Observer.

The WCK cargo, which was unloaded at a makeshift pier near the central city of Deir el-Balah built by volunteers from rubble, is part of a U.S.-led project to build a temporary floating pier that officials hope will be fully operational by early May.

The announcement of more aid is unlikely to ease calls for the UK and US governments to stop supplying arms to Israel. Many legal experts believe Britain is violating international humanitarian law by blaming Hamas for the war, which the health ministry says has led to the deaths of at least 33,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. With many bodies still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the true figure is likely higher.

Last week, The Guardian reported that Israeli military officials had allowed large numbers of Palestinian civilians to die in uncontrolled “blunt” bombings targeting even low-level Hamas militants and other Palestinian Islamist groups, based on what intelligence sources said was was a system controlled by artificial intelligence, which in many cases risked striking by mistake.

Both White House national security spokesman John Kirby and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they were reviewing the report.

Israel says it is waging a war of self-defense against a brutal enemy bent on destroying the state, after Hamas killed more than 1,100 people, most of them civilians, in cross-border attacks on October 7 last year and took at least two hostages in Gaza. 250 people, The Observer recalls.

Israel denies it is blocking aid, saying any shortages are the result of humanitarian logistics failures or the diversion of supplies by Hamas.

Last week The Observer reported that Alicia Kearns, a Tory MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said Foreign Office lawyers had concluded that Israel was breaking international law and that Britain had to stop selling arms as a result. This has not been denied by the Foreign Office.

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy was set to talk on Sunday about how Labor will try to use parliament to pressure the government to release legal advice. Lammy said the UK government must “unconditionally commit to upholding international law in this conflict, including compliance with licensing criteria governing arms sales, and call on Israel to fully comply with the interim measures set out in the binding January ICJ decision.”

In the six months since the Hamas attacks, Rishi Sunak has hardened his stance on Israel, saying that while Britain defends the country’s right to self-defence, “the whole of Britain is appalled by the bloodshed and the killing of brave British heroes who delivered food to those in need.”

Sunak added: “This terrible conflict must end. The hostages must be released. The assistance we are working hard to deliver by land, air and sea must be provided in full. The children of Gaza need an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a long-term sustainable ceasefire.”

These comments were in stark contrast to those he made a week after October 7, in which he offered unconditional and continued support for Israel and did not even mention the innocent Palestinians involved in the conflict, The Observer noted.

The sea corridor project will take several weeks to complete and runs the risk of providing too little help too late. While aid experts welcomed it as a step in the right direction, they said the plan, along with airborne assaults introduced after more than 100 people were killed at an aid distribution site in February, remained a less effective way to deliver aid to Gas than delivery by land.

The number of aid trucks entering the territory over the past five months has been far less than 500 per day than before the war, and getting aid to where it is most needed has been hampered by damaged roads, fuel shortages, and public order disruptions. and what aid agencies described. such as unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles imposed by Israel and the failure of Israeli forces to ensure safe passage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Biden last week that Israel would reopen a key land checkpoint in Gaza, allow more humanitarian aid through another checkpoint and open an Israeli port to the delivery of aid after a warning issued after the killings of personnel humanitarian organizations that future US support for Israel will depend on the adoption of specific measures. actions to protect civilians and humanitarian workers.

The Israeli cabinet decision followed briefings from Foreign Ministry officials who warned that unless aid was increased, Israel risked sanctions and an arms embargo.

The US has also made clear that it strongly opposes Israeli plans for a ground operation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where a million people are sheltering, not least because of Israel’s “unrealistic plans” to evacuate civilians before an attack.

Although a week-long truce in late November saw the release of 100 Israelis in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, negotiations aimed at brokering a second, longer truce and the release of remaining hostages have repeatedly broken down since then.