Israel-Hamas war: First Gaza aid ship leaves Cyprus port

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again said on Tuesday that Israel would press forward with its military campaign into Rafah in the southern Gaza strip, amid international pressure for him to abandon the plan. 

More than a million civilians are thought to have fled to the southern city, one of the last relatively safe areas in Gaza, seeking shelter.

"We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm's way," Netanyahu said in a video address to a conference of the pro-Israel AIPAC organization in Washington in the US.

Pressure on Israel to either refrain from the military operation or to seek measures to protect civilians has been mounting for weeks. 

On Tuesday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that "an Israeli military operation in Rafah that does not protect civilians" was not something President Joe Biden could support. 

It's not clear when Israel plans to launch the operation. 

According to the news agency Reuters, EU leaders intend to appeal to Netanyahu in a joint statement after their next summit not to launch a military operation in Rafah. That summit only takes place on March 21 and 22.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it has struck around 4,500 Hezbollah positions in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months, killing some 300 militants and wounding some 750 others.

Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon and Israel have been regularly trading cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Lately, Israel has been striking Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon, raising concerns about an escalation of the conflict on Israel's northern border. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, and the militant group has vowed to continue attacks on Israeli targets as long as its war in Gaza against Hamas continues.

Israeli forces also said Tuesday its fighter jets "struck two Hezbollah military command centers" in the Baalbek region in the Bekaa Valley, a stronghold of the Hezbollah group.

They were in response to a barrage of rockets fired at Israeli positions by Hezbollah earlier in the day, the Israeli military said. The exchanges also followed Israeli strikes near Baalbek late on Monday night.

Israeli fighter jets struck locations in the Baalbek region where Hezbollah store "significant assets used to strength its weapons arsenal," the Israeli military said Tuesday.

"A military compound in the area of Khiam and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Bint Jbeil were also struck," the Israeli military added, referring to the two towns in southern Lebanon.

Since hostilities began, at least 319 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 54 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally. 

Israel and Hamas militants are "not near a deal" involving the release of hostages and an end to fighting, said Qatar, which acts as a mediator between the two sides.

"We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a press briefing in Doha.

All parties were "continuing to work in the negotiations to reach a deal hopefully within the confines of Ramadan," Ansari said. 

But he could not offer a "timeline" on a potential deal and explained the conflict remains "very complicated on the ground."

Weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian officials had aimed to bring about a truce deal before Ramadan, but it failed to materialize, with the sides unable to agree on terms.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU will do everything in its power to bring hostages home from Gaza and to make sure humanitarian aid is delivered to civilians in the territory.

Addressing the European Parliament, she told lawmakers the situation on the ground in Gaza "has reached a tipping point," with near-constant reports about "children dying of starvation."  

The commission president said the departure of a ship carrying food from Cyprus to northern Gaza was significant because it was the result of massive international cooperation. The last time a ship carried aid to Gaza was in 2005, she added.

"All routes have to be used to reach people in need," von der Leyen said.

Given that distribution of aid on the ground had become increasingly challenging, the new sea route could provide a "robust" flow of aid into Gaza, she added, stressing that aid alone would not solve the crisis in the enclave.

"Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself, and fight off Hamas," she said. But "the only way to ensure aid at all times for Gazans is to restore an adequate flow of humanitarian aid."

"The people of Gaza need an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable cease-fire. And they need it now."

The EU will step up logistics support on the ground and will finance the flow of European goods through the maritime corridor, she said.

Von der Leyen also warned that "without a sustainable cease-fire, the contagion of the Gaza war could spread across the region." 

Lebanon-based militia group Hezbollah said it has launched over 100 rockets aimed at Israeli military positions in retaliation for a strike on the country's east that killed one person.

Iran-backed Hezbollah launched "more than a hundred katyusha rockets" at two military bases in the occupied Golan Heights, the group said in a statement.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded increasingly intense, deadly cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries.

Hezbollah said its strikes were "in response to the Israeli attacks on our people, villages and cities, most recently near the city of Baalbek and the killing of a citizen."

Several Israeli strikes have moved deeper inside Lebanon lately with targets aimed at Bekaa Valley, which has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah. The strikes have raised fears of a full-blown conflict. 

On Monday, Israeli air strikes near Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in Bekaa Valley, killed one person.

An aid ship carrying 200 tons of food for Gaza left the Larnaca port in Cyprus early Tuesday after being held up for days.

It is the first such shipment along a new maritime corridor from Cyprus, which aims to deliver much-needed aid to Gazans.

The charity ship Open Arms is towing a barge laden with flour, rice, canned tuna, beans, chicken and other things.

The journey is expected to take up to two days.

Israel has welcomed the new sea route, but some aid groups have criticized the mission, saying it is too little and ineffective.

The operation is part of an effort by the US, European Union, and United Arab Emirates to distribute aid in Gaza as food shortages across the territory steadily worsen.

The enclave has been effectively sealed off since Israel began its offensive in response to the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas militants. The United Nations has said food delivered by airdrops cannot replace open land borders.

Israeli airstrikes near Baalbek, a city in eastern Lebanon, have killed at least one person and wounded several others, authorities said.

"Israeli aircraft targeted a former Hezbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital," a security source told the AFP news agency. The source added that there was also "another raid on a warehouse west of Baalbek."

The governor of the Baalbek-Hermel region, Bachir Khodr, said that one person had been killed in the strikes.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted two locations, including the warehouse and a residential building in the town of Ansar.

The Israeli military confirmed the strikes on two sites belonging to "Hezbollah's aerial forces."

There have been near-daily exchanges of fire, primarily in the southern border areas, between Israeli forces and Hamas-ally Hezbollah since the beginning of conflict in Gaza.

The expansion of Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah positions deeper in Lebanon, beyond the southern border, has  raised fears of a wider conflict.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon that is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries.

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a merchant vessel in the Red Sea with missiles but caused no damage, authorities said Tuesday.

A Houthi military spokesman said the group had hit the ship Pinocchio, describing it as "American."

The Pinocchio is a Liberian-flagged container ship owned by a Singapore-registered company, according to shipping databases operated by Equasis and the UN's International Maritime Organization.

The US Central Command said two anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired at the Pinocchio from Yemeni territory and resulted in no injuries or damage.

Hours later, it added, US forces "conducted six self-defense strikes destroying an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles in Houthi controlled areas of Yemen."

The Iran-aligned Houthis have increased attacks on ships in the Red Sea since the war in Gaza began. 

The Houthis said Tuesday they planned to step up their military operations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians.

The group's attacks on vessels in the region have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.

ss/nm (Reuters, AFP, AP)