The president of Cyprus said Tuesday that he won’t “open another route” for irregular migration by letting through more than two dozen asylum-seekers now stranded in a U.N.-controlled buffer zone that bisects the war-divided island nation.

President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters that his government is ready to provide any and all humanitarian assistance for the 27 Afghan, Cameroonian, Sudanese and Iranian migrants if the need arises.

CHANCES OF CYPRUS PEACE TALKS RESTART LOOK DIMMER AS TURKISH CYPRIOT LEADER SEES NO COMMON GROUND

But he said the 180-kilometer (120-mile) buffer zone “won’t become a new avenue for the passage of illegal migrants.” Turkey lets them pass through its territory and allows them to board airplanes and boats heading for the north of Cyprus, Christodoulides said.

Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by Greek junta-backed supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the north of the island where it maintains a force of more than 35,000 troops.

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys full membership benefits and has the authority to extend asylum or international protection to migrants.

The U.N. said that the 27 migrants — approximately half of whom are women and children — are receiving food, water, primary first aid and shelter through its refugee agency UNHCR after they were refused by Cypriot authorities to submit their asylum claims.

The U.N. said it has no mandate to process asylum applications and can’t send the migrants back to either the north or Turkey.

“We are making representations to the Republic of Cyprus to live up to their obligations under European Union and international law,” U.N. peacekeeping force spokesman Aleem Siddique told The Associated Press. “We’re looking for a solution that works.”

The migrants’ arrival comes a few days before local and European Parliament elections, where migration is a top campaign issue and on which the far-right has seized to make major gains, according to opinion polls.

Cyprus had in recent years seen a major increase in migrants seeking asylum after reaching the north from Turkey and crossing the buffer zone. A combination of tough measures including stepped up police patrols along the southern fringes of the buffer zone, accelerated asylum claims processing and expedited repatriation procedures have reduced such crossings by more than 85%, according to officials.

The island also experienced a large influx of Syrian refugees reaching the island by boat from Lebanon in the first quarter of the year. But a deal with Lebanese authorities last month has effectively halted such boat arrivals.

It’s not the first time that migrants have been stranded in the buffer zone, and Cypriot authorities are wary about reprising the quandary. In 2021, Cameroonian asylum-seekers Grace Enjei and Daniel Ejuba who were stuck in the buffer zone for six months, were taken to Italy along with a few other migrants by Pope Francis at the end of his visit to Cyprus.

Dozens wounded in attacks on Bureij, Maghazi as only remaining working hospital in area ‘overflowing’ with patients, health official says.

At least 15 people have been killed in Israeli ground and air attacks on the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, a Palestinian health official has said.

“More than 15 martyrs and dozens of injuries reached the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the last several hours,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health told reporters from outside the hospital grounds in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

If the “aggression” on the areas in central Gaza does not come to a halt, the number of those killed is expected to quickly rise, he said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is the only medical facility currently offering services to more than one million people in the area, the spokesperson said.

The facility does not have the capacity for more patients, he warned, adding that the hospital is already “overflowing with wounded people”, many of whom are being treated on the floor.

An attack on another house in the neighbouring Maghazi refugee camp killed two people, according to officials at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Earlier, the Israeli military said in a statement jets were hitting Hamas targets in central Gaza while ground forces were operating “in a focused manner with guidance from intelligence” in the al-Bureij area.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said medical staff at the hospital are overwhelmed by casualties pouring in.

“Doctors are running everywhere, searching for remaining medical supplies including antiseptics and anaesthetics to perform urgent operations to save lives,” Mahmoud said.

“We can still hear explosions of ongoing attacks and heavy machine-gun fire in the eastern area of central Gaza – including the densely populated Maghazi and Bureij camps,” he added.

“We’re learning from victims’ relatives there are still entire families trapped inside bombed homes in those camps.”

Ceasefire proposal faltering?

Israeli forces waged an offensive earlier this year for several weeks in Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.

Troops pulled out of the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza last Friday after weeks of fighting caused widespread destruction to the already ravaged area. First responders have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence said.

The Israeli air raids and ground offensives across the Gaza Strip come as international mediators wait for Israel and Hamas to respond to a new ceasefire and captive exchange proposal.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday the group will not accept a deal with Israel that does not clearly lay out a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

“The Israeli response talks about opening the door for negotiations on everything with no end or timeline … this confirms that Israel only wants one phase, where it takes its prisoners then resumes its aggression and war against our people,” Hamdan said.

“As long as there is no clear stance of readiness by the Zionist occupation for a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal from Gaza … we cannot agree to a deal that does not ensure and does not guarantee a permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal and a subsequent prisoner exchange,” he added.

Announcing the plan last week, US President Joe Biden said the three-phase plan was proposed by Israel, however, Israeli leaders have since appeared to distance themselves from the proposal and pledged to keep fighting Hamas until the group is destroyed.

Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel is expanding its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled Rafah, mostly into tent camps that have arisen across central and southern Gaza.