From the sycamore gap tree. Seedlings from the famously felled tree are starting to grow. Hello, im nicky schiller. We start this hour with the latest on the israel gaza war. A Ship Carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid for gaza is getting ready to set sail from cyprus. The spanish vessel, open arms, is preparing to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food and medical aid provided by the us Charity World central kitchen. Our correspondent anna foster is injerusalem. There is a development in the aid effort towards gaza. A ship has been loaded in cyprus and we can show you pictures of that happening which is going to mark the start of a new maritime aid corridor. A vessel carrying humanitarian aid is expected to set sail from cyprus to gaza in the coming hours. Its the first delivery of supplies to use the maritime aid corridor, announced on friday. It was announced yesterday by Ursula Von Der Leyen and is expected to become operational in the next few hours. It would be a new way to
Apologies for problems with the automation and pictures there. We start with Breaking News in gaza, with more details emerging of an explosion at a Un Relief Agency warehouse, in rafah in southern gaza. The Hamas Run Health Ministry says, five people have been killed, with more wounded. These are pictures verified by the bbc, filmed at a nearby hospital, where casualties were taken. Israel has not commented so far on the incident. It comes as the us and others continue to urge israel, not to launch a full scale assault on rafah, where over a million palestinians have taken shelter in recent weeks. Let me show you pictures of the warehouse itself that were talking about. These taken in the immediate aftermath. Those were the pictures from inside. A lot of the images are too graphic to broadcast. Lets speak to unrwas director of communicationsjuliette touma. Welcome to the programme. Tell me what you know. Welcome to the programme. Tell me what you know welcome to the programme. Tell me
With her two children. Welcome to bbc news. I am live in jerusalem outside the walls of the city where in the next few hours, there are hopes that a Ceasefire Deal in gaza could be arranged, but as talks in cairo have broken down in the last few days, theres very little sign of that happening. All of the focus now is on cyprus for a new maritime aid corridor, confirmed yesterday by European Commission president ursula von der leyen, is due to come into operation in the next few hours. This will be the first time this corridor has been used, and the aid is urgently needed. The Hamas Run Health Ministry in gaza said 23 people have died from Malnutition Injust 10 days. The sea corridor is a joint operation between the eu, us, uk, and united arab emirates, aiming to take supplies from cyprus to the gazan coast. The un says a quarter of gazas population is on the brink of famine, and children are starving to death. 0rganisers Hope The Plan could allow additional aid to be brought in, but th
The spanish vessel hopes to use a new Shipping Route to arrive the next few days but where it will arrive is still up in the air. No Functioning Port in gaza so it is unclear where that boat will dock. The ship called the open arms will set off. Its taken an enormous effort to even get this far with this relief mission. But the real challenge will come as they get closer to gaza. It might take as long as 2 3 days for them to make the 210 nautical miles from here in cyprus to gaza. But when they get there, they are arriving at a territory that has no Functioning Port so they have to off load that aid, and in the north of gaza distributing aid, its the most badly affected, most desperately in need part of gaza. Distributing aid there is extremely difficult. All Law And Order has broken down there, its absolute chaos on the ground, so they were also have to manage that. That will be a Great Success if they managed to open this first maritime aid quarter. There are others who say, in fact,