First aid ship departs for Gaza with 200 tonnes of food
Cargo funded by the UAE and Cyprus includes rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies and proteins.
A ship with 200 tonnes of food has departed for Gaza from Cyprus as part of the opening of a maritime corridor for humanitarian to the enclave.
The 200 tonnes of food includes rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies and proteins and is funded by the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus.
“Our goal is to establish a maritime highway of boats and barges stocked with millions of meals continuously headed towards Gaza,” said José Andrés, the chef and founder of World Central Kitchen.
The shipment comes following Washington’s announcement that it will build a pier off Gaza’s coast in the coming months to allow more aid in to the enclave. The UK is among the countries participating in aid via sea.
Israel has welcomed the delivery of aid through sea but insists it be in charge of security.
COGAT announced on Monday that 169 packages of humanitarian aid were airdropped over northern Gaza by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, France, Belgium, and the USA and that 149 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to Gaza.
However, the UN and other NGO’s inside Gaza have complained for months that the amount of aid reaching the enclave isn’t nearly enough for the two million Palestinians facing hunger.
Israel has repeatedly said it doesn’t put any restrictions on the amount of aid reaching Gaza, but that Hamas is complicating the delivery by hijacking trucks and preventing some of them from reaching their destination in northern Gaza.
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