Aid for Gaza being loaded onto ship in Cyprus after US pier completed

Aid for Gaza is being loaded onto a ship in Cyprus in what is expected to be the first cargo to be delivered using a US pier built to expedite supplies to the besieged enclave.

Containers are being stacked on the US-flagged Sagamore, docked at the port of Larnaca. Some containers going to the ship are labeled as aid from the United Arab Emirates.

“We are completing the loading of aid onto a US vessel now in Larnaca, and once the platform is in place, this part of the process [shipment] can commence,” says Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government spokesperson.

It is unclear when the vessel would depart. The Pentagon said yesterday that it had completed construction of the pier and was hoping to move it off the coast of Gaza later this week.