EU to send ship carrying aid via new sea corridor
ASHIP will head to Gaza carrying humanitarian aid, the European Commission president said yesterday, as international donors launch a sea corridor to supply the territory.
A ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms will make a pilot voyage to test the sea corridor, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Cyprus, where she was inspecting preparations for the sea corridor.
It has been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
Von der Leyen said the EU, together with the US, the United Arab Emirates and other involved partner countries are launching the sea corridor to deliver large quantities of aid to Gaza to respond to a “humanitarian catastrophe,” speaking at a news conference with Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides.
Efforts to dramatically ramp up aid deliveries signalled growing frustration in the US and Europe.
On Thursday, US president Joe Biden announced a plan to open an offshore port to help deliver aid, underscoring how the United States is having to go around Israel, its main Middle East ally and the top recipient of US military aid, to get aid into Gaza, including through airdrops that started last week.
Israel accuses Hamas of commandeering some aid deliveries.
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 cut-offs of food supply deliveries.
While re-iterating his support for Israel, Biden used his State of the Union speech to repeat demands that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should allow in more aid into Gaza.
US officials said it will likely be weeks before the Gaza pier is operational. Aid groups have said their efforts to deliver desperately needed supplies have been hampered because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the isolated north.
Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters late on Thursday that air and sea deliveries cannot make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.
EU Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said on Wednesday the bloc would consider airdrops, but this would be a last resort and cannot replace ground access to the enclave. Ujvari said the EU has so far carried out around 40 flights to deliver aid to Gaza, primarily through Egypt.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach a ceasefire before Ramadan appeared stalled. Hamas said on Thursday that its delegation had left Cairo, where talks were being held, until next week. International mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis.