LARNACA: A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a sea route to deliver supplies to a population aid agencies say is on the brink of famine.
The charity ship Open Arms was seen sailing out of Larnaca port in Cyprus, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein. The mission was funded mostly by the UAE and organised by US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
The journey to Gaza took about 15 hours but a heavy tow barge could make the trip considerably longer, possibly up to two days. Cyprus is just over 320 km north-west of Gaza.
The US military said its vessel, the General Frank S. Besson, was also en route to provide humanitarian relief to Gaza by sea.
With aid agencies saying deliveries into Gaza have been held up by bureaucratic obstacles and insecurity since the start of the war and even Israel’s allies demanding easier aid access to the enclave, attention has shifted towards alternative routes including sea and air drops.
Tuesday’s mission was the culmination of months of preparation by Cyprus, the EU member state closest to the conflict. It is keeping a wary eye on spillover effects from upheaval in the Middle East and is already seeing migratory inflows from Lebanon increasing.
With the lack of port infrastructure, WCK said it was building a landing jetty in Gaza with material from destroyed buildings and rubble. This is a separate initiative to a plan announced by US President Joe Biden last week to build a temporary pier in Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries by sea. Construction of the jetty was “well underway”, WCK founder Jose Andres said in a post on X. “We may fail, but the biggest failure will not be trying!” he wrote, posting a picture of work with bulldozers apparently levelling out ground close to sea.
Prior to the outbreak of the war, about 500 trucks entered Gaza a day, with 100 of those carrying aid and the rest commercial supplies, such as fuel and cooking gas, according to UNRWA, the main UN aid agency in Gaza.
The UN estimates a quarter of the population in the pulverised enclave is at risk of starvation, and aid is barely scratching the surface of daily needs. The UN has previously accused Israel of blocking aid to Gaza. The war has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, with many cramped into makeshift tents. — Reuters
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