Aid ship from Cyprus 'ready' to sail for Gaza, Spanish charity says

This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, click here.

Summary

•  A boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was "ready" to set sail from Cyprus, an NGO said Saturday, as fighting raged between Israeli troops and Hamas militants ahead of Ramadan.
• Israel on Saturday struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in southern Gaza, according to residents. Preliminary reports said there were several injuries in the attack on Rafah's Burj al-Masri building. 
• The United States and its allies said they shot down 28 drones fired by Yemen's Huthis at targets in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Saturday, in one of the Iran-backed rebels' largest attacks.
• Sweden said Saturday it was resuming aid to UN agency for Palestinian refugees with an initial disbursement of $20 million after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel. It is one of several countries that suspended aid to UNRWA in January after Israel accused 12 of its employees of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
• At least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 wounded since Israel started its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.

Yesterday's key developments:

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that a ship was preparing to leave Cyprus and head for Gaza with humanitarian aid, as international donors launch a sea corridor to supply the besieged Palestinian territory.
• UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that Israel’s establishment and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories amounted to a transfer of its own civilian population into occupied territories, a “war crime" under international law which risks eliminating “any practical possibility” of a viable Palestinian state.
• US President Joe Biden warned Israel that it cannot use aid as a "bargaining chip" as he issued a call for an immediate, temporary ceasefire with Hamas in the bloody Gaza war during his State of the Union address late on Thursday. He also told Congress that he has ordered the US military to set up a port in Gaza to get more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered territory by sea.

About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.

The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies. 

For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.

(FRANCE 24 with AP) 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)