A ship carrying 200 tonnes of food set sail on Tuesday as part of a pilot programme to open a sea corridor to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, The Week reports.
The food was collected by World Food Kitchen, a charity founded by celebrity chef Jos Andrs, and is being transported on a barge attached to a ship belonging to Spanish aid group Open Arms. The shipment is expected to arrive at an undisclosed location on the Gaza coast in two to three days. Andrs and the captain of the Open Arms ship, Oscar Camps, confirmed that the food is destined for northern Gaza.
On Saturday evening, Andrs told The Associated Press in a brief interview that they wanted to keep the cargo’s whereabouts secret to avoid a repeat of the 29 February incident when Israeli troops opened fire on a large crowd of Palestinians trying to pick up food from an aid convoy in Gaza City, killing more than 100 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The United States has separately announced plans to build a sea bridge near Gaza to deliver aid, but it will likely be weeks before it is operational.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides wrote on social media platform X that the inaugural voyage is about hope and humanity, and that the food being delivered is a lifesaver for civilians. The Cypriot government had initially floated the idea of using the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean as a base to send aid to Gaza by ship.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked the Cypriot president and wrote on website X that the ship’s departure was a sign of hope and promised to “do everything possible to ensure that aid reaches the Palestinians”.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and some 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced by the war sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. According to the UN, a quarter of the population is starving.
The European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, backs the planned sea route. The United States and other countries have also begun airlifting aid in recent days, but aid organisations say the effort is costly and unlikely to meet the growing need.
Organisers say that once the ship approaches Gaza, two small vessels will tow the barge to a pier that World Central Kitchen is building at an undisclosed location. The charity then plans to distribute the food through the 60 kitchens it runs across Gaza.
Israel has said it supports the initiative and will screen all shipments before they leave for Gaza.
