Gaza War: Hundreds of rockets were launched from Lebanon at Israel and an aid ship launched from Cyprus to Gaza

The charity ship “Open Arms” was seen sailing from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, towing a barge containing flour, rice and proteins.

It has not been revealed exactly where it plans to dock when it arrives in Gaza.

The mission, mostly funded by the United Arab Emirates, is organized by the US-based charity World Central Kitchen, while the Spanish charity supplies the ship.

“Our goal is to create a sea highway for boats and ships loaded with millions of meals continuously heading toward Gaza,” José Andres, the organization’s founder and CEO Irene Gore, said in a statement.

This initiative is separate from a US plan to build and operate a floating dock near the Gaza coast, which will allow rapid delivery of humanitarian aid.

With a lack of port infrastructure, the organization said it is constructing a dock in Gaza with materials from destroyed buildings and rubble.

She said she had collected another 500 tons of aid in Cyprus and would also be sent.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said on Tuesday that more than 100 missiles were launched since the morning hours from Lebanon at northern Israel.

The Israeli army announced that air strikes targeted three platforms from which rockets were launched, while the last batch of rockets launched did not result in any casualties, according to the Israeli ambulance.

Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for targeting Israeli sites near the Lebanese border, including “Birkat Risha and the site of the monk and Jal al-Alam.”

The party stated in a statement that the operations targeted spy sites, and that it achieved direct hits there.

While the mutual targeting between the two parties continues, Hezbollah announced today in a statement that the party’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, received a leading delegation from the Hamas movement headed by the movement’s deputy head in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Hayya.

The statement indicated that the meeting discussed the field situation on various fronts, as well as developments in the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

Israel targets eastern Lebanon

On Monday, Israel launched air strikes near the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, resulting in one person being killed, according to two security sources and the official Lebanese News Agency.

This is the second attack since the start of the cross-border shelling against the backdrop of the outbreak of war in Gaza.

A security official told Agence France-Presse that “Israeli aircraft targeted a former Hezbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital,” adding that the Israeli army “raid a second time” on a warehouse in the western city of Baalbek.

The official Lebanese National News Agency also announced that “Israeli aircraft carried out a raid on Monday evening targeting a residential building in the town of Ansar in the Bekaa, south of the city of Baalbek,” in addition to the outbreak of fire and plumes of smoke rising from the targeted place.

She added that an Israeli air strike “targeted a warehouse west of Baalbek, between the towns of Shamstar and Taria.”

The Israeli army confirmed that its “fighter planes” launched raids on “two sites” of the “Hezbollah Air Forces” in the Bekaa, the plain in which the city of Baalbek is located.

A draft of the results of the summit that will be held by European Union leaders next week – reported by Reuters – confirmed that European Union leaders will urge Israel to refrain from launching a ground operation in Rafah, at a time when Israeli officials said that the expected Israeli attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip “is not imminent.” “.

European Union leaders will call for an immediate halt on humanitarian grounds leading to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli officials explained to CNN that the Israeli army has not yet mobilized the necessary forces to proceed with the Rafah attack, nor has it finalized plans to evacuate civilians from the city.

They added, “It is possible to activate the necessary force mobilization in a short time, and it is expected that a large civilian evacuation operation will take at least two weeks.”

Military and political officials said that the Israeli Cabinet has not yet signed the plans presented by the army for the evacuation and incursion.

But they warned that an attack on Rafah during the month of Ramadan “is not unlikely.”

Regarding the development of the situation in Gaza, Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli army, announced on Monday that his forces launched an air strike in the Gaza Strip targeting the second official in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, without clarifying whether the strike resulted in his death. While Hamas has not commented on this yet.

Hagari said: “Fighters attacked an underground base belonging to Hamas leaders in the central Gaza Strip near Nusseirat… It was used by two senior officials in the organization, one of whom was Marwan Issa,” the second official in the Al-Qassam Brigades, according to him.

He added: “We are still studying the results of the strike,” stressing at the same time that “when we confirm our information, we will say what we have.”

Hagari said, citing Israeli intelligence services, that the targeting area was not one of the areas containing hostages.

This comes at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video clip on Monday, vowed to “defeat” all senior Hamas leaders.

Last December, Palestinian media reported that Muhammad, Marwan Issa’s son, was killed in an Israeli strike.

For weeks, Arab and Western countries have been participating, on an almost daily basis, in dropping food parcels and medical aid into the Gaza Strip by parachute.

However, the United Nations believes that airdrops and sending aid by sea cannot replace the delivery of aid by land, according to Agence France-Presse.

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who had previously announced the resignation of his government, said on Monday: “The severity of starvation is intensifying, which is not treated only by dropping meals. Some of them fall into the sea, and others become a tool for killing the hungry due to errors in dropping them off.”

He added: “The easiest and most generous solution for the hungry is to stop crime first, and deliver aid through the crossings and ports under the supervision of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees. If the goal is to provide aid, there are five crossings that reach Gaza through which aid can be delivered within hours, instead of waiting three days at sea.” .

Scenes captured by Agence France-Presse showed some food parcels breaking when they hit the ground, prompting residents to search through the dirt for suitable ones.

A package falling on a house after an umbrella broke last week also killed five people.

The United Nations warns that 2.2 million people out of the Strip’s 2.4 million population are at risk of famine.

As for the humanitarian sea corridor, which the European Union is working to prepare with the support of some Arab countries, the first ship loaded with aid is still waiting in Cyprus to sail towards Gaza.

Open Arms, the non-governmental organization supervising the operation, said that its ship would tow a barge carrying 200 tons of food, but a spokeswoman could not confirm the date of its departure.