UAE suspending use of maritime aid corridor after deadly strike

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

An Open Arms vessel and a barge carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip are pictured offshore in Gaza City as it awaits approval to dock, on April 1, 2024. (AFP)
An Open Arms vessel and a barge carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip are pictured offshore in Gaza City as it awaits approval to dock, on April 1, 2024. (AFP)

The United Arab Emirates has paused its involvement in the Gaza maritime aid corridor pending a full investigation and assurances from Israel that aid workers will be protected, a senior Emirati official tells The Times of Israel.

An Israeli strike killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen aid group in Gaza on Monday.

The UAE has been the main financier for aid through a maritime corridor to Gaza, often in missions organized by WCK.

“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza requires the adoption of such a collective international approach to immediately mitigate the threat to innocent lives, by ensuring urgent, safe, unhindered, and sustainable delivery of aid,” the UAE says in a joint statement with Cyprus, which has said it will seek to keep the aid corridor operational.

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