Aid ship sets sail to Gaza
Hundreds of thousands face starvation five months into war
AN AID ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail for Gaza on Tuesday in a pilot programme for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the fivemonth-old Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
The push to get food in by sea – along with a recent campaign of air drops into isolated northern Gaza – highlighted the international community’s frustration with the growing humanitarian crisis and its inability to get aid in by road.
The food on the aid ship was collected by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and is being transported by the Spanish aid group Open Arms. The ship departed from the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus and is expected to arrive in Gaza in two to three days.
The United States has separately announced plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza in order to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational. President Joe Biden’s administration has provided crucial military aid for Israel while urging it to facilitate more humanitarian access.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have tried to broker a ceasefire and hostage release ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began at sundown Sunday. But the talks stalled as Hamas demanded that any temporary pause in the fighting come with guarantees for ending the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive into the strip’s southern city of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, and to keep fighting until Hamas has been dismantled and all the captives it is holding have been returned.
The war threatens to spill across the Middle East as Iran-backed groups allied with Hamas trade fire with US and Israeli forces. The Israeli military said around 100 projectiles were launched into Israel from Lebanon early on Tuesday, one of the biggest barrages since the war began. It appeared to be in response to Israeli airstrikes deep inside Lebanon the day before.
A pair of Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in northeastern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded 20. Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have traded fire nearly every day since the war began.
Aid groups say it is nearly impossible to deliver aid in much of Gaza because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order after the Hamas-run police force largely vanished from the streets.
Conditions are especially dire in northern Gaza, which has suffered widespread devastation and has been largely cut off by Israeli forces since October.
On Monday, the first day of the normally festive month of Ramadan, children with pots lined up at a charity kitchen in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp. Each was given a small portion of cooked carrots and sweet potatoes to break the dawn-to-dusk fast.
“Our children can’t find anything to eat,” said Bassam al-Haw, a volunteer. “No food, no water, no flour.”
The planned sea route has the support of the European Union, the US, the United Arab Emirates and others. The US and other countries have also launched airdrops, but such efforts are costly and unlikely to meet the mounting needs.