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12-03-2024
NICOSIA/ GAZA CITY: A ship with humanitarian aid for Gaza remains docked in Cyprus, a day after it was due to begin its journey.
A charity leading the mission told media it was “a quickly evolving and fluid situation”, but it hoped the ship, Open Arms, would set sail soon.
On Sunday evening, the sighting of the new moon marked the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Gaza.
A ceasefire remains off the table as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have largely stalled.
The UN has warned that famine in Gaza is “almost inevitable” and children are starving to death.
Aid agencies and Western politicians say the best way to get the amount of aid needed into Gaza is by land.
Last week, UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the UK, US and EU were continuing to urge Israel “to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need it”.
He also said Israel should open its container port at Ashdod, north of Gaza, to receive aid shipments from Cyprus until a sea corridor is up and running.
Israel denies impeding the entry of aid or its distribution inside Gaza, and blames UN agencies on the ground for failing to get the aid that is allowed in to the people who need it.
The Open Arms mission is separate to US plans to start building a floating dock off the coast of Gaza to help get aid deliveries in by sea.
A US military ship, the General Frank S Besson, set sail from a base in the state of Virginia on Saturday and is sailing towards the Middle East, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier that could allow large ships carrying aid to be unloaded but the Pentagon has said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops – none of whom would go ashore.
The Open Arms meanwhile would be the first ship to sail from Cyprus to Gaza under a sea corridor plan announced by the EU, US and UK.
The salvage vessel, still docked in the Cypriot port city of Larnaca, belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name.
The food is being supplied by the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US charity founded by Spanish celebrity chef Jose Andres.
In a video posted from Larnaca’s port on Monday morning, Juan Camilo of WCK said “everything is ready” for the ship to set sail.
“From this side we are ready to go and we have our team ready in Gaza to (distribute) this, what we hope is going to be the first of as many as possible trips to Gaza by sea,” he said.
The boat will tow a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of food, including rice, flour and cans of meat and fish. The voyage is expected to take about 50 hours. (Int’l News Desk)
