An aid ship carrying 200 tonnes of food to alleviate looming famine in the Gaza Strip remained docked in Cyprus on Sunday night, despite the push for maritime aid in the face of stalling ceasefire talks and the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Cyprus government spokesperson, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, told the island’s official news agency that the exact timing of the vessel’s departure would not be made public for “security reasons”. It was later reported that due to “technical difficulties”, it might not depart until Monday morning.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US-based non -governmental organisation, and the Spanish charity Open Arms, set up to rescue refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, were expecting a first delivery of goods including rice, flour, lentils, beans and canned fish and meat to leave via an Open Arms vessel from Larnaca this weekend and arrive at an undisclosed location in Gaza in two or three days’ time.
But the boat remained moored in Cyprus on Sunday evening. Letymbiotis said the cargo had been inspected by Cypriot officials under a plan approved by Israel.
The WCK spokesperson Linda Roth declined to go into the “full logistical information”, citing an “evolving and fluid situation”, but said Open Arms, towing a barge, would embark as soon as possible. The charities were ready to send another 500 tonnes of aid, funded by the UAE, she added, and work had begun on Sunday on a floating jetty where the aid can be received.
In a separate development, a US military vessel carrying equipment for building a second temporary pier in Gaza was en route to the Mediterranean, officials in Washington said. However, it could be weeks before the facility was functional, they said.
The aid ship delay highlights the complexity of delivering aid to Gaza through unconventional means. Israel has been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people. Its shallow shoreline waters and dearth of functioning ports will make it difficult for the maritime operation to get under way, and it is unclear how much assistance via the new “sea highway” will affect the dire humanitarian situation on the ground.
After five months of war, the UN says a quarter of people in the besieged Palestinian territory are on the brink of starvation. The local health ministry said on Saturday that 23 people, including several children, had died of dehydration or malnutrition in the last 10 days.
Aid agencies’ efforts to get humanitarian aid to where it is most needed have been severely hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel.
Israel said it welcomed the sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it left the staging area in nearby Cyprus.
As the only two open entry points to the coastal territory are in the far south, humanitarian aid convoys have to traverse up to 25 miles (40km) of destroyed roads, with a continual threat of looting, in order to reach Gaza City and the northern areas of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, where conditions are the most dire. Many convoys have also been blocked or delayed by Israeli forces. – Guardian