The ship chartered by Spanish NGO Open Arms set sail on Tuesday, March 12, from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, for Gaza, 370 kilometers to the east. The Spanish-flagged vessel is carrying 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid, "mainly water and food: rice, pasta, flour, canned food, tins of tuna... Basic necessities," explained Open Arms spokeswoman Laura Lanuza. The organization is working with one already present in Gaza, World Central Kitchen, which will receive and distribute the aid. "When we first arrived in Cyprus, we thought it would be mission impossible," she recalls.
It's been over five months since Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides proposed the creation of a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza. Although Israel officially agreed to the project at the end of December 2023, the Europeans did not see it moving forward, until Joe Biden's recent statements on March 7. During his State of the Union address, the US president announced the implementation of such an initiative and the creation of a temporary jetty off the coast of Gaza to get aid there faster and more massively.
The following day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Larnaca to officially launch this maritime corridor, which is also supported by Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. For several months, aid has been trickling into Gaza by land.
According to the World Food and Agriculture Organization, between 100 and 150 trucks are delivered daily, whereas at least twice as many are needed to prevent famine. To supplement these deliveries, Jordan, Egypt, the US and France have carried out airdrops, but again to insufficient effect.
"We hope to have a floating platform that would allow ships to land aid before it is transferred to the beach," said Lanuza. The US has stated that to build such an infrastructure, a thousand soldiers will be mobilized over several weeks, up to 60 days, to set up a jetty capable of receiving aid coming in by sea. As for the control of the aid by Israel, this is carried out in Larnaca. On Sunday, the first shipment was inspected by Israeli teams, while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reviewed the preparatory work off the Gaza coast on the same day.