Shipload of Aid in Cyprus Prepares to Leave for Gaza
A ship loaded with 200 tons of food aid is expected to depart the Cyprus port of Larnaca sometime Saturday, bound for Gaza as a pilot run for a maritime aid corridor for the embattled enclave. The ship is owned by the Spanish nongovernmental aid organization Open Arms. In an interview with The Associated Press, the group’s founder, Oscar Camps, said the pilot aid shipment is a joint project between it and World Central Kitchen, a food aid group founded by chef Jose Andres. The opening of a maritime aid corridor is a joint project of the European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, and the United States. U.S. President Joe Biden referenced the project in his State of the Union speech on Thursday, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Cyprus on Friday to announce the start of the initiative. Biden said the U.S. military would establish a ‘temporary pier’ off the coast of Gaza to help deliver aid to the region. The U.S. military said the temporary pier could take up to 60 days to construct. In his AP interview, Camps said in the initial shipment, the World Central Kitchen is building a temporary pier of its own at an undisclosed location in Gaza. The food, once offloaded, will be distributed by the World Central Kitchen at 60 locations it has established in Gaza. A spokesperson for Open Arms told Agence France-Presse the ship will depart Cyprus once it has ‘all the authorizations and permits’ required. Observers suggest the opening of the maritime corridor — along with the recent inauguration of airdrops of aid that continued Saturday — are signs of increasing frustration with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a new international willingness to work around Israeli restrictions. In a statement on his X social media account, formerly Twitter, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said Israel welcomes the inauguration of the maritime corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip. ‘The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards.’ Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports. Subscribe
An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid over Gaza the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, March 8, 2024.
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