Gaza: The Spanish charity’s salvage ship, Open Arms, has unloaded supplies off the coast of Gaza. This is the first humanitarian aid ship to Gaza.
According to the United Nations (UN), Gaza is on the brink of starvation. The Spanish fleet Open Arms left Cyprus with the 200 tons of food they needed. The videos spreading online show a crane carrying crates from the barge to lorries waiting on a purpose-built jetty.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), which supplied the food, in association with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), undertook the assignment of delivering the barge’s rice, flour, pulses, canned vegetables and canned proteins.
The jetty was built off the coast by WCK’s team due to the lack of functioning ports available in Gaza. However, it is still unclear how food will be distributed in Gaza. WCK’s founder, celebrity chef Jose Andrés, wrote on X that all the food aid from the barge was shipped in 12 lorries.
“We did it!” He wrote that it was a test to see if the next shipment could deliver even more aid up to ‘thousands of tons a week.’
Israel said in a statement that the Open Arms ship and its cargo were examined in Cyprus and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armies were deployed to secure the coastal area. Aid was transported to dry land throughout the night by teams of volunteers. As soon as the ship departed from the port of Larnaca, this delivery was eagerly anticipated.
If this sea mission is deemed successful, other aid ships will follow as part of an international effort to bring more aid to Gaza. It would be possible for ships to navigate directly to the region through the newly opened sea lane.
The United States plans to build its floating dock on the shore to increase sea deliveries. The White House says it could see two million meals a day enter Gaza, but as a military ship sail by with equipment to build the dock, questions remain about the logistics of the plan.
Aid supplies were harshly affected by military procedures and social order breakdowns. While Gaza’s food production is also severely affected, with farms, bakeries and factories destroyed or rendered inaccessible.
Agencies for aid report that Israeli restrictions mean only a fraction of the aid needed is getting through the road, which is the fastest and most effective way to get aid into the region. Land distribution was temporarily suspended by the World Food Program after convoys were attacked and looted. Five people were killed last week when a parachute failed during the airdrop and an aid package hit.
The UN cautioned that starvation in Gaza was ‘almost inevitable’ without critical effort, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, blamed Israel for creating a ‘manmade’ catastrophe and using hunger as a weapon of war. Israel firmly prohibited that it was accountable for the food shortage in Gaza, letting aid through two crossings to the south. Instead, aid agencies were condemned for logistical failures.
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