Middle East crisis: First aid shipment by sea expected to be delivered through Gaza

Palestinians leave northern Gaza on Thursday.Credit... Ahmed Zakot/Reuters

< p class="live-blog-post-content css-h61jh5 evys1bk0">The first aid shipment to reach Gaza by sea in almost two decades has been unloaded from a makeshift jetty and is to be distributed by truck across the entire enclave, in a step that Western officials hope will pave the way for a maritime corridor to deliver supplies to suffering Gazans.

The ship, the Open Arms, was towing a barge loaded with around 200 tonnes of rice, flour, lentils and canned tuna, beef and chicken, supplied by the charity World Central Kitchen, through the Mediterranean from Cyprus.

“The Open Arms connected a barge filled with nearly 200 tons of food to the W.C.K. built a pier on the Gaza coast,” the association said in a statement, referring to a pier it built with rubble on the Gaza coast. “All goods have been unloaded and are being prepared for distribution to Gaza.”

The supplies will be shipped by truck, including included in northern Gaza, said José Andrés, the famous Spanish-American chef who founded World Central Kitchen. It was not clear who was driving the trucks and who would ensure their safety, and Mr. Andrés declined to provide further details.

Distributing food safely Where needed is an urgent challenge in Gaza, particularly in the north, which is particularly troubled by insecurity, lawlessness and roads damaged by Israeli airstrikes . Signs of desperate hunger are growing as people resort to eating animal food or ambushing aid trucks.

The UN. aid groups had to largely suspend deliveries to northern Gaza last month, and for at least the second time in just over two weeks, a convoy bringing aid there ended in bloodbath Thursday evening when Palestinians were killed and injured in an attack around trucks, according to Gaza health officials and the Israeli army.

The Open Arms is the first ship authorized to deliver aid to Gaza by sea since 2005, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the executive branch of the European Union, who described the operation as a pilot project for a so-called maritime corridor for supplying the territory.

Gaza being under blockade almost total and having suffered more than five months of Israeli bombardment, a large part of the enclave is threatened with famine, the United Nations has warned. Humanitarian officials have stressed that delivering aid by sea is far less efficient than by truck and called on Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza and ease restrictions.

World Central Kitchen is preparing to send a second boat with food aid from the Cypriot port of Larnaca, the association said, but it is not clear exactly when he leaves. The second ship is equipped with two forklifts and a crane to facilitate future sea deliveries, and has a cargo of 240 tonnes of food, including carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, corn, rice, flour, oil and salt, as well as more than 250 pounds of fresh dates donated by the United Arab Emirates.

Last week, President Biden announced a U.S.-led initiative to establish a temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza to facilitate the transit of goods. U.S. officials hope to eventually use the pier to enable the delivery of two million meals per day to Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

Since October, the organizers and Pal...