Canada says it will join effort to get aid to Gaza through sea corridor
• Canada will join an international effort to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to go hungry.
Joly issued a statement saying Canada will join the international coalition that is working together to increase the flow of aid to
Gaza through a humanitarian sea corridor originating from Cyprus. Further details were not released.
The announcement came following a meeting between Joly and her counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed.
“We discussed the need to increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza through all means possible,” Joly said Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I committed that Canada will join the coalition to do just that through a humanitarian sea corridor.”
On Friday, the UAE, along with the European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly announced their intent to open a maritime corridor.
The new push for aid came as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was set to begin Monday in much of the world after officials in Saudi Arabia saw the crescent moon. Hopes for a new ceasefire by Ramadan faded days ago with negotiations apparently stalled.
A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza was on its way to the Mediterranean on Sunday.
The opening of the sea corridor, along with airdrops by the U.S., Jordan and others, reflected growing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli and Egyptian control over land shipments.
But aid officials say air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of land routes. The number of aid trucks entering Gaza daily are far below the 500 entering before the war.
Israel has said it welcomes the sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves a staging area in nearby Cyprus. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, reviewed prep work off the Gaza coast on Sunday.