Israel-Hamas war: First aid ship leaves for Gaza as agencies say population on brink of famine

A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a sea corridor to deliver supplies to a population that aid agencies say is on the brink of famine.

While welcoming the project, however, senior United Nations officials said it could not replace the delivery of humanitarian aid by land from Egypt and Jordan. Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it had managed to get the first aid convoy into Gaza City in the north of the strip since February 20th.

The charity ship Open Arms was seen sailing out of Larnaca port, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein. The mission was funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates and organised by US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).

The voyage to Gaza takes about 15 hours but a heavy tow barge could considerably lengthen the trip, possibly up to two days. Cyprus is just over 320km northwest of Gaza.

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The US military said one of its vessels, the General Frank S Besson, was also en route to provide humanitarian relief to Gaza by sea.

With aid agencies saying deliveries into Gaza have been held up by bureaucratic obstacles and insecurity since the start of the war on October 7th, attention has shifted towards alternative routes including sea and air drops.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Tuesday that negotiators seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were not close to a deal.

Washington had said for weeks that it hoped for a truce deal in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month that began this week, but it has so far failed to materialise.

On Tuesday, CIA director William Burns said there was “still a possibility” of a Gaza ceasefire deal, although many complicated issues remain.

Tuesday’s sea supply mission was the culmination of months of preparation by Cyprus, the European Union member state closest to the conflict. It is keeping a wary eye on spillover effects from upheaval in the Middle East and is already seeing migratory inflows from Lebanon increasing. More than 400 people arrived in fishing boats on Monday.

Given the lack of port infrastructure in Gaza, WCK said it was building a landing jetty with material from destroyed buildings and rubble, an initiative separate to a plan announced by US president Joe Biden last week to build a temporary pier.

Construction of the jetty is “well under way”, WCK founder Jose Andres said in a post on X accompanied by a picture of bulldozers apparently levelling out ground close to the sea.

WCK Activation manager Juan Camilo Jimenez told Reuters a second vessel would depart within the next few days.

Aid agencies say such efforts can provide only limited relief as long as most land crossings to the coastal Palestinian enclave are completely sealed off by Israel.

“For aid delivery at scale, there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza,” UN Humanitarian and Reconstruction Co-ordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag and UN Office for Project Services executive director Jorge Moreira Da Silva said in a statement.

Israel says it is not to blame for Gaza’s hunger, as it is allowing aid through two crossings at the southern edge of the territory. Aid agencies say that is not enough to get sufficient supplies through, particularly to the northern part of the enclave that is effectively cut off.

Commenting on Tuesday’s aid delivery to the north of the Gaza Strip, WFP spokesperson Shaza Moghraby said: “We were finally able to deliver enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City in the early hours of this morning. This ... proves that moving food by road is possible.”

Gaza’s health ministry said the number of Palestinians who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in the last two weeks had reached 27, after the deaths of two people on Tuesday.

The UN estimates a quarter of the 2.3 million population in Gaza is now at risk of starvation.

The conflict has displaced most of Gaza’s population and there have been chaotic scenes and deadly incidents at aid distributions as desperately hungry people scramble for food.

On Tuesday, Palestinian health officials reported that nine Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire as crowds awaited aid trucks on Kuwait Square in Gaza City. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.

Fighters from Hamas, which administers Gaza, killed 1,200 people in a lightning October 7th attack on Israel and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 31,184 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities, and injured 72,889.

Ceasefire talks have so far failed to reach a breakthrough, with Israel saying it is interested only in a temporary truce to free hostages, and Hamas saying it will let them go only as part of a deal to permanently end the war. – Reuters