GAZA AID SHIP SET TO LAUNCH SEA ROUTE
Deliveries begin as Biden voices frustration at Israel
LARNACA, CYPRUS • A ship bearing humanitarian aid was making preparations to leave Cyprus and head for Gaza, the European Commission president said Friday, as international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the territory that is facing widespread hunger after five months of war.
The opening of the corridor, along with the recent inauguration of airdrops of aid, showed increasing frustration with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a new international willingness to work around Israeli restrictions.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s growing impatience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was captured on a hot mic saying that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a “come-tojesus meeting.”
The comments by Biden came as he spoke with Sen. Michael Bennet on the floor of the House chamber following Thursday night’s State of the Union address.
In the exchange, Bennet congratulates Biden on his speech and urges the president to keep pressing Netanyahu on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were also part of the brief conversation.
Biden then responds using Netanyahu’s nickname, saying, “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come-to-jesus’ meeting.”
An aide to the president standing nearby then speaks quietly into the president’s ear, appearing to alert Biden that microphones remained on as he worked the room.
“I’m on a hot mic here,” Biden says after being alerted. “Good. That’s good.”
Biden has become increasingly public about his frustration with the Netanyahu government’s unwillingness to open more land crossings for critically needed aid to make its way into Gaza.
In his address on Thursday, he called on the Israelis to do more to alleviate the suffering even as they try to eliminate Hamas.
“To Israel, I say this humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” Biden said.
The president announced in his speech Thursday that the U.S. military would help establish a temporary pier aimed at boosting the amount of aid getting into the territory. Last week, the U.S. military began air dropping aid into Gaza.
Biden said the temporary pier, “will enable a massive increase in humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza.”
The aid vessel heading to Gaza will make a pilot voyage to test the corridor in the coming days, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Cyprus, where she’s inspecting preparations for it. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a U.S. charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
Israel said Friday it welcomed the maritime corridor, but cautioned it would also need security checks.
“The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after a security check according to Israeli standards,” Lior Haiat, spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry, said on X, formerly Twitter.
The European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other involved countries were launching the sea route in response to the “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding in Gaza, Von der Leyen said at a news conference with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
The ship will depart for Gaza on Saturday, Christodoulides told The Associated Press.
In Brussels, commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said the Open Arms ship’s direct route to Gaza raises a number of “logistical problems” which are still being worked out. He said UN agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.
Efforts to set up a sea route for aid deliveries come amid mounting alarm over the spread of hunger among Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces for months and suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries.
On Thursday, Biden announced a plan to build a temporary pier in Gaza to help deliver aid, underscoring how the U.S. has to go around Israel, its main Mideast ally and the top recipient of U.S. military aid, to deliver aid to Gaza.
Israel accuses Hamas of commandeering some aid deliveries. Aid officials have said that deliveries by sea and by air are far more costly and inefficient than sending trucks by land. On Friday, five people in Gaza were killed and several others were injured when airdrops malfunctioned and hit people and landed on homes, Palestinian officials said.
YOU AND I ARE GOING TO HAVE A ‘COMETO-JESUS’ MEETING.