A second Gaza-bound aid ship would embark from the Cypriot port of Larnaca once a boat already sailing along the new maritime corridor completes its mission, Cyprus’s foreign minister said Wednesday.
The Israel-Hamas war, now in its sixth month, has created a severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine.
With only a fraction of the basic supplies needed to sustain Gaza’s 2.4 million people let in by land, foreign governments have turned to airdrops and are now trying to open the maritime corridor from Cyprus.
The first boat, Open Arms, set sail on Tuesday in a trial for the new aid route, which UN and other humanitarian officials have said was unlikely to effectively substitute overland access.
The second vessel, “with bigger capacity” than the Open Arms, will be able to leave Larnaca “after the off-load” of the first one, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told reporters.
“If there is no problem, we have lined up the next departure.”
Pulling a barge loaded with 200 tons of humanitarian aid, the former salvage vessel Open Arms should take “several days” to cross the roughly 370-kilometer (230-mile) sea journey between Cyprus and Gaza, said the Spanish charity operating it, also called Open Arms.
It has not disclosed the planned unloading point on Gaza’s shores, citing security concerns.
The second ship “has been in Larnaca since Saturday” and was being inspected, Kombos said, without specifying how much aid was being loaded onto it.
While the first boat was arranged “through an NGO, we have lined up a follow-up through a commercial vessel with bigger capacity,” the minister added.
Once near Gaza, the aid carried by the Open Arms will be delivered onto a pier built for the operation by US charity World Central Kitchen, which will then distribute it.
“It’s a maiden trip, we need to make sure we have the capacity to receive and distribute food to the population,” Kombos said.
A major concern for the delivery is “crowd management,” according to the minister, as people have been desperately waiting for food, with the situation particularly acute in the territory’s north.
With AFP
