Visiting Cyprus, EU chief says pilot ship to set sail Friday on aid corridor to Gaza
Ursula von der Leyen inspects facilities at Larnaca port, where Spanish ship carrying US-donated food supplies is waiting to make test run; Israel welcomes move
A ship will head to Gaza on Friday carrying humanitarian aid, the European Commission president said while visiting Cyprus, as international donors launch a sea corridor to supply the territory, which faces widespread hunger and shortages of other essential supplies after nearly five months of war.
A ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms will make a pilot voyage to test the sea corridor, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Cyprus, where she’s inspecting preparations for the sea corridor. It’s been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.
She said the EU, together with the US, the United Arab Emirates and other involved partner countries are launching the sea corridor to deliver large quantities of aid to Gaza to respond to a “humanitarian catastrophe,” speaking at a news conference with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
Israel welcomed the move.
“Israel will continue to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gazans, in accordance with the laws of war and in coordination with the US and our allies around the world,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
The statement added that Israel will continue to fight the Hamas terror group “until its elimination and the return of all hostages.”
Efforts to dramatically ramp up aid deliveries signaled growing frustration in the United States and Europe with Israel’s conduct in the war.
The previous day, US President Joe Biden announced a plan to open an offshore port to help deliver aid, underscoring how the United States is having to go around Israel — its main Mideast ally and the top recipient of US military aid — to get aid into Gaza, including through airdrops that started last week.
Efforts to set up a sea route for aid deliveries come amid mounting alarm over the spread of hunger among Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces for months and suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries.
Israel says it does not restrict humanitarian or medical aid and has blamed the lack of deliveries on the capacity of aid agencies, repeatedly saying that it is approving more aid trucks for crossing than the agencies are able to deliver. It also accuses Hamas of commandeering some aid deliveries.
After months of warnings over the risk of famine in Gaza under Israel’s airstrikes, ground operations and siege, hospital doctors have reported 20 malnutrition-related deaths at two northern Gaza hospitals. The figure could not be independently verified.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Friday that the UK will work alongside the United States to open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza.
“Alongside the US, the UK and partners have announced we will open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza,” Cameron said on social media. “We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need it.”
While reiterating his support for Israel, Biden used his State of the Union speech to reiterate demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allow more aid to Gaza.
“To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” Biden declared before Congress. He also repeated calls for Israel to do more to protect civilians in the fighting, and to work toward Palestinian statehood as the only long-term solution to Israeli-Palestinian violence.
US officials said it will likely be weeks before the Gaza pier is operational.
Aid groups have said their efforts to deliver desperately needed supplies to Gaza have been hampered because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the isolated north.
Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters late Thursday that air and sea deliveries cannot make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.
EU Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said on Wednesday the bloc would consider airdrops, but this would be a last resort and cannot replace ground access to the enclave.
Ujvari said the EU has so far carried out around 40 flights to deliver aid to Gaza, primarily through Egypt.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach a ceasefire before Ramadan appeared stalled. Hamas said Thursday that its delegation had left Cairo, where talks were being held, until next week.
International mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with a six-week ceasefire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it is holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners, and aid groups given access to bring a major influx of assistance into Gaza.
It is believed that 130 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 11 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 31 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Egyptian officials said Hamas has agreed to the main terms of such an agreement as a first stage but wants commitments that it will lead to an eventual more permanent ceasefire, while Israel wants to confine the negotiations to a more limited agreement.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations with the media. Both officials said mediators are still pressing the two parties to soften their positions.
