UN Says Maritime Corridor to Gaza No Substitute for Aid Delivery by Land

Displaced Palestinians gather to collect food donated by a charitable youth group before breakfast, on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 March 2024. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians gather to collect food donated by a charitable youth group before breakfast, on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 March 2024. (EPA)
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UN Says Maritime Corridor to Gaza No Substitute for Aid Delivery by Land

Displaced Palestinians gather to collect food donated by a charitable youth group before breakfast, on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 March 2024. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians gather to collect food donated by a charitable youth group before breakfast, on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 March 2024. (EPA)

Senior United Nations officials on Tuesday welcomed the opening of a maritime corridor from Cyprus to deliver additional aid to the Gaza Strip, but said it could not replace the delivery of humanitarian assistance by land.

"For aid delivery at scale, there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza. The land routes from Egypt, Rafah in particular, and Jordan also remain essential to the overall humanitarian effort," said UN Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag and UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva.

"The maritime corridor brings, however, much needed additionality and is part of a sustained humanitarian response to provide aid as effectively as possible through all possible routes," they said.



Israeli American Soldier Thought to Have Been Taken Hostage in Gaza Is Presumed Dead

Israeli soldiers play football near tanks and armored personnel carrier (APC), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, June 2, 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers play football near tanks and armored personnel carrier (APC), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, June 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli American Soldier Thought to Have Been Taken Hostage in Gaza Is Presumed Dead

Israeli soldiers play football near tanks and armored personnel carrier (APC), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, June 2, 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers play football near tanks and armored personnel carrier (APC), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, June 2, 2024. (Reuters)

The Israeli military said Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, is now presumed to have been killed during Hamas’ attack and his body taken into Gaza.

Neutra, 21, was a New York native who enlisted in the Israeli military and was captured when Hamas attacked southern Israel.

Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, led a public campaign while he was thought to be alive for their son’s freedom. They spoke at protests in the US and Israel, addressed the Republican National Convention this year and kept up ties with the Biden administration in their crusade to secure their son’s release.

In a statement announcing the death, the military did not say how it came to the conclusion over Neutra’s fate.

He was one of seven American Israelis still held in Gaza, four of whom are now said to be dead. Hamas released a video of one, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was still alive.

In late summer, Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another prominent Israeli American hostage, along with five other captives, whose bodies the Israeli military recovered.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, around two-thirds believed to be alive.