Race to rush aid to Gaza as EU warns hunger ‘a weapon of war’

Donor nations and charities rush food aid to war-torn Gaza as starvation becomes a weapon of war.

Donor nations, aid agencies and charities pushed on with efforts on Wednesday to rush food to war-torn Gaza by land, air and sea after the EU top diplomat said starvation had become "a weapon of war".

The Israel-Hamas conflict raging since October 7 has caused mass civilian deaths, reduced vast areas to a rubble-strewn wasteland and sparked warnings of looming famine in the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.

A Spanish charity vessel, the Open Arms, was on its way to Gaza from Cyprus, where it had set sail early on March 12 towing a barge with 200 tonnes of aid, in a first voyage meant to open a maritime corridor.

The flow of aid trucks from Egypt into Gaza has slowed recently — a trend variously blamed on Israel and its security checks of cargo, and on civil unrest in Gaza where desperate crowds have looted aid shipments.

About half a dozen Arab and western nations have airdropped food parcels on parachutes into Gaza, and Morocco has sent a planeload of relief supplies via Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

The U.N. World Food Programme, trying an alternative land route from southern Israel, sent an initial six aid trucks on March 12 into worst-hit northern Gaza, through a gate in the security fence, the Israeli Army said.

The WFP said it had "delivered enough food for 25,000 people" and demanded that, "with people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day. We need entry points directly into the north."