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Morocco, Israel to Exchange Visits in Feb.

Morocco's FM Nasser Bourita speaks upon the arrival of the US Presidential advisor and Israeli National Security Advisor at the Royal Palace in Rabat on December 22, 2020. (Getty Images)
Morocco's FM Nasser Bourita speaks upon the arrival of the US Presidential advisor and Israeli National Security Advisor at the Royal Palace in Rabat on December 22, 2020. (Getty Images)
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Morocco, Israel to Exchange Visits in Feb.

Morocco's FM Nasser Bourita speaks upon the arrival of the US Presidential advisor and Israeli National Security Advisor at the Royal Palace in Rabat on December 22, 2020. (Getty Images)
Morocco's FM Nasser Bourita speaks upon the arrival of the US Presidential advisor and Israeli National Security Advisor at the Royal Palace in Rabat on December 22, 2020. (Getty Images)

Israel’s National Security Council chairman Meir Ben-Shabbat and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita agreed during telephone talks on Friday to send delegations to their respective countries in February.

Israel and Morocco announced the creation of “working groups” to bolster bilateral cooperation, following an agreement to restore diplomatic ties.

Such intergovernmental groups will work in cooperation in various fields, including investment, agriculture, water, environment, tourism, science, innovation and energy.

The groups will meet virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"A Moroccan high-level delegation will visit Israel as soon as possible, probably in February, to finalize the terms of these agreements," the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) said, adding that "an Israeli delegation, led by Ben-Shabbat, is also expected in Morocco in February."

Bourita and Ben-Shabbat also "discussed the huge potential of cooperation that will benefit not only Morocco and Israel, but also the entire region."

Bourita and Israel's Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi were supposed to hold talks via video conference on Friday to discuss bilateral cooperation, but they were postponed.

Meanwhile, Israel's new ambassador to Morocco Ambassador David Govrin arrived in Rabat on Tuesday to take up his post. A source from the Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Morocco will soon appoint a head to its liaison office in Tel Aviv, with Abderrahim Bayoud a candidate for the position.

He will travel to Israel in the coming few weeks.

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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.