US Military Completes Gaza Pier Intended for Humanitarian Aid Deliveries
(NEWSnet/AP) – The U.S. military has finished installing a floating pier designed for delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has seen over seven months of intense fighting during the Israel-Hamas war.
The first shipment intended for this project is already en route.
Israel's defense minister said the military would send more troops into Rafah, a city along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, as fighting continued in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. Around 600,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah since the beginning of last week, the U.N. said. In northern Gaza, Israeli evacuation orders have displaced at least 100,000 people so far.
Some 80% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the start of the war, with many relocating multiple times.
No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for more than a week. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N, while a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north of the territory.
Seven months of the war have killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people there, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
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