The American ship with the equipment for the construction of the port in Gaza towards the Mediterranean Sea

2024-03-11 15:01:21, Kosova & Bota CNA

The American ship with the equipment for the construction of the port in Gaza

The US military has launched a massive ship from Virginia to the Mediterranean Sea to begin construction of a temporary port on the Gaza coast. The ship is loaded with equipment needed for the port, which will facilitate the delivery of more aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, who are facing severe food shortages due to the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Gaza Strip is engulfed in an urban war. The Israeli Ministry of Defense released a video showing Israeli troops fighting in every house in the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

According to regional health officials, the release of the video follows a weekend in which dozens of Palestinians were killed by air and artillery strikes by Israeli forces.

The situation in Gaza is dire, say health workers and humanitarian aid workers.

"The situation has worsened for several reasons. We have reached this point because we are facing a deadlock. Two of the three crossings in the Gaza Strip are controlled by Israel and the other crossing is controlled by Egypt. Now, only one of these three crossings is partially functioning", says Dr. Thaer Ahmad from the "MedGlobal" organization.

To overcome these ground blockades, regional partners began airdropping aid.

Over the weekend, the Jordanian air force dropped food aid into Gaza, including flour, rice, infant formula and water.

The United States Air Force also air-dropped more than 88 food aid packages, containing 53,000 food rations and 23,000 bottles of water.

Now the United States has begun a new operation to deliver aid to Gaza, sending a large ship from Virginia to the Mediterranean Sea with equipment to build a temporary port in the Gaza Strip.

According to some estimates, it could take up to 60 days to build the port, which will be used for operations to send aid to the Palestinian territories.

The UN says a quarter of Gaza's population is facing starvation.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, says that so far close to 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in this conflict, a figure unacceptable to US President Joe Biden.

"We cannot have more than 30,000 Palestinians killed as a result of the war against Hamas. There are other ways to deal with the trauma caused by Hamas," said President Biden.

With the beginning of the month of Ramadan, for more than 72 thousand wounded Palestinians, any kind of help from land, sea or air is vital./ VOA