For the first time in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a shipment of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip set sail by sea from the island of Cyprus on Tuesday morning.
Some 200 tons of food from the humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen (WCK), founded by the Spanish chef José Andrés, have left the port of Larnaca aboard the ship of the Spanish NGO
Open Arms
.
With this joint mission, the maritime corridor established by the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom is officially inaugurated, with which it is hoped that it will be possible to partially alleviate the humanitarian crisis that affects hundreds of thousands of Gazans who are victims of the war and the blockade that Israel imposes land entry of aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Ahead they have 210 nautical miles (about 380 kilometers) to the Palestinian coast, where the infrastructure for disembarkation and distribution among the population will be the next challenge.
The growing famine after more than five months of war makes the work of distributing the little food that reaches Gaza chaotic because many people come desperate to collect it.
The main example of the prevailing situation is what happened during the so-called
flour massacre
on February 29.
That day, more than a hundred people were killed around a convoy south of Gaza City in an incident in which Israeli occupation troops shot at people who, in the chaos, were trying to get hold of the bags.
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It is “a highly complex mission and we trust it will be the first of many that will manage to alleviate the humanitarian emergency situation that the population is experiencing,” Open Arms highlights when announcing and celebrating this Tuesday morning on social networks the departure of the port.
Images show the ship with a floating platform added to the ship's port side to increase its carrying capacity.
🔴 #BREAKING
We set sail!
The joint #OpenArms & @WCKitchen mission sets sail from Cyprus and heads to #Gaza loaded with 200 tons of food.
Thus, the maritime humanitarian corridor to the Strip is opened, in a highly complex mission that we trust will be the first of many that… pic.twitter.com/CTa566uP3y
— Open Arms (@openarms_fund) March 12, 2024
The cargo contains rice, flour, beans, lentils, cans of tuna and other non-perishable, high-protein foods.
It is packed in black bundles that bear the WCK logo and the flag of the United Arab Emirates, which diplomatically and financially supports this mission.
The maritime corridor has been applauded by the Israeli authorities themselves, but they are the ones who, at the same time, prevent aid from reaching Gaza by the most accessible and cheapest route, land.
Israel controls everything that enters the Strip, under its rule by land, more and air.
In fact, Gaza has up to seven border crossings;
six of them separate the enclave from Israel and one from Egypt.
Since the beginning of the war, only two of these points have been partially enabled.
On the one hand, that of Rafah, which separates Gaza from Egyptian territory.
On the other, Kerem Shalom, Israeli territory, but located next to the vertex where the Strip, Israel and Egypt meet.
There are five other crossings (Erez, Karni, Nahal Oz, Sufa and Kissufim) that are not being used to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazan citizens.
The Erez port is located about thirty kilometers from the port of Ashdod, whose facilities receive part of the aid destined for Gaza, but which is blocked, as in Kerem Shalom, by Israeli ultra groups that defend the humanitarian suffocation of the Palestinians as tool to win the war.
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