Israel ready to let ships bring aid to Gaza’s shores, says foreign minister
Israel is prepared to let ships deliver aid to the Gaza Strip “immediately” as part of a proposed sea corridor from Cyprus, the Israeli foreign minister has said.
Under the arrangement, cargo would undergo security inspection in the Cypriot port of Larnaca before being ferried to the Gaza coast, 230 miles away, rather than through neighbouring Egypt or Israel, Reuters reports.
If the plan goes ahead, it would mark the first easing of an Israeli naval blockade imposed on Gaza in 2007.
“It can start immediately,” Israel’s outgoing foreign minister, Eli Cohen, told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM when asked about the Mediterranean corridor.
He said Britain, France, Greece and the Netherlands were among countries with vessels able to land directly on the shores of Gaza, which lacks a deep-water port.
“They requested of us that the equipment come via [the Israeli port of] Ashdod. The answer is no. It won’t come via Ashdod. It won’t come via Israel. We want disengagement, with security control. That’s the goal of this process,” Cohen added.
Gaza residents have almost all fled their homes, clustering in tents and overcrowded parts of the south and central strip that Israeli military officials say are safer, though they are still regularly bombed.
There are reports of shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies, after weeks of tight Israeli blockade.
When supplies are allowed in, active fighting and logistics challenges in an area devastated by war mean they often do not reach many desperate inhabitants.
Key events
Israeli minister says government ‘bears responsibility’ for failing to anticipate 7 October attack
In an interview on Israeli radio on Sunday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s outgoing foreign minister, acknowledged “the government bears responsibility” for having failed to anticipate the 7 October Hamas attack, AFP reports.
7 October is when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,140 people and taking up to 250 hostage.
Cohen, who has played an instrumental role in the normalisation of relations between Israel and some Arab countries after decades of hostility, also said an independent commission of inquiry should be established at the end of the war.
Summary of the day so far…
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Israel is prepared to let ships deliver aid to the Gaza Strip “immediately” as part of a proposed sea corridor from Cyprus, the Israeli foreign minister said. Under the arrangement, cargo would undergo security inspection in the Cypriot port of Larnaca before being ferried to the Gaza coast, 230 miles away, rather than through neighbouring Egypt or Israel, Reuters reported.
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The Israeli government has approved the appointment of a new foreign minister to replace Eli Cohen, who will become energy minister as part of a pre-arranged ministerial rotation, a government statement said. Cohen is due to continue to serve as a member of the security cabinet while Yisrael Katz will serve as foreign affairs minister.
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A total of 21,822 Palestinian people have been killed and 56,451 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. The figures include 150 Palestinians killed and 286 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
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US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command said.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed in overnight bombing in Gaza City, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip said, with 18 bodies recovered so far and many buried under the rubble.
“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere,” one local man told AFP after a building was hit. “Children are still missing, we can’t find them,” he said.
The Israeli army reported killing about a dozen enemy fighters in several ground battles, air and tank strikes, AFP reports.
Israel ready to let ships bring aid to Gaza’s shores, says foreign minister
Israel is prepared to let ships deliver aid to the Gaza Strip “immediately” as part of a proposed sea corridor from Cyprus, the Israeli foreign minister has said.
Under the arrangement, cargo would undergo security inspection in the Cypriot port of Larnaca before being ferried to the Gaza coast, 230 miles away, rather than through neighbouring Egypt or Israel, Reuters reports.
If the plan goes ahead, it would mark the first easing of an Israeli naval blockade imposed on Gaza in 2007.
“It can start immediately,” Israel’s outgoing foreign minister, Eli Cohen, told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM when asked about the Mediterranean corridor.
He said Britain, France, Greece and the Netherlands were among countries with vessels able to land directly on the shores of Gaza, which lacks a deep-water port.
“They requested of us that the equipment come via [the Israeli port of] Ashdod. The answer is no. It won’t come via Ashdod. It won’t come via Israel. We want disengagement, with security control. That’s the goal of this process,” Cohen added.
Gaza residents have almost all fled their homes, clustering in tents and overcrowded parts of the south and central strip that Israeli military officials say are safer, though they are still regularly bombed.
There are reports of shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies, after weeks of tight Israeli blockade.
When supplies are allowed in, active fighting and logistics challenges in an area devastated by war mean they often do not reach many desperate inhabitants.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel has displayed morality in the Gaza war, AFP reports.
“We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which is without peer,” Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv.
His comment came after South Africa launched a case on Friday at the international court of justice against Israel for what it claimed were “genocidal” acts in Gaza.
“No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
“It would murder all of us if it could. In contrast, the IDF [Israeli army] is acting as morally as possible.”
The Israeli government has also given the green light for postponed municipal elections to take place in February, subject to parliamentary approval.
A statement from the prime minister’s office read:
We usually do not hold elections in wartime but these elections have been determined in advance.
They have already been postponed once.
Israeli government approves appointment of new foreign minister
The Israeli government has approved the appointment of a new foreign minister to replace Eli Cohen, who will become energy minister as part of a pre-arranged ministerial rotation, a government statement said.
Cohen will continue to serve as a member of the security cabinet while Yisrael Katz will serve as foreign affairs minister, the statement said.
The appointments are subject to Israeli parliamentary approval.
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said on Sunday he had made clear in a call with Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that Iran shared responsibility for preventing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
“I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks, given their longstanding support to the Houthis,” he wrote on X, adding that the attacks “threaten innocent lives and the global economy”.
I spoke to @Amirabdolahian today about Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which threaten innocent lives and the global economy. I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks given their long-standing support to the Houthis.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 31, 2023
His comments come after the US Navy shot down two anti-ship missiles and sunk three small boats after responding to distress calls from a container ship that was attacked twice by Houthi rebels as it crossed the Red Sea over the weekend.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 21,822, says health ministry
A total of 21,822 Palestinian people have been killed and 56,451 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday.
The figures include 150 Palestinians killed and 286 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
The Danish shipping company Maersk has confirmed the crew onboard Maersk Hangzhou had reported a flash on deck on 30 December at about 1830 CET, when the vessel was 55 nautical miles south-west of Al Hodeidah, Reuters reports.
The crew was safe and there was no indication of fire onboard the vessel, which continued its journey north to Port Suez, Maersk said.
