Palestinians walk past the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 6, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. AFP

The Emirati-Europe backed Cypriot maritime humanitarian aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza is an essential emergency measure to provide food, water, and medicine for starving, sick, and shelter less Palestinians trapped by Israel in the narrow coastal strip. Two hundred tonnes of flour and rice on the first ship via the sea-link will make up for a modest part of the aid deficit designed by Israel to deny Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians the necessities to sustain life. Another 500 tonnes of supplies remain in the Cypriot port of Larnaca for further deliveries which could provide five million meals.  The plan is to maintain a constant flow of essential supplies.

The test voyage has been sponsored by the UAE and undertaken by a tugboat towing a barge from Spain’s Open Arms activist group in cooperation with the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) established by Spanish celebrity chef Jose Andres.  Before being given permission to enter coastal waters off Gaza, the ship and its cargo were inspected by Israeli agents. Set to depart on Sunday, the vessel is set to take about 15 hours to reach an unidentified beach in Gaza where World Central Kitchen, which has constructed a jetty to receive the aid, will distribute it among 60 kitchens runs in Gaza.

The mission involves cooperation between the Cyprus, UAE, and other governments and these two non-governmental, non-profit organisations.  Open Arms was founded two decades ago as a service to rescue migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe and has expanded its operations to deal with health emergencies.

WCK was founded in 2010 following the devastating earthquake in Haiti and has deployed thousands of volunteers to work with local chefs and restauranteurs to provide food for millions of victims of war and natural disasters.  WCK has so far served 34 million meals in Gaza and has invented a stove to cook meals in the strip where there is no electricity and little wood.

Cypriot President Nikis Christodoulides proposed the maritime corridor last November and recruited the British navy to carry 90 tonnes of aid to Gaza. But this effort was scuppered by Israel which had initially agreed to the project. Barred from landing its cargo in Gaza, the ship sailed to Malta until it received clearance from Egypt to berth at the Sinai port at El-Arish and load the aid onto lorries which were subjected to Israeli inspection before being allowed to join long queues waiting for permission to cross into Gaza.

Since then UN and global humanitarian agencies have been in uproar over Israel’s intervention in aid deliveries and there have been massive protests in major Western cities against Israel’s refusal to ceasefire and expedite aid deliveries.

Before the war, around 500 lorry loads of supplies and commercial goods were cleared for entry at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing and entered southern Gaza. Since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel the number of loaded lorries has fluctuated between four and 200. After January 23rd, few convoys were permitted to reach northern Gaza where there are daily fatalities from starvation and dehydration, the majority among children. There are numerous still births by mothers suffering from acute malnutrition.

Shipments via the maritime corridor must be off-loaded safely and loaded onto lorries after which aid faces the same challenges as convoys entering Gaza in lorries.  Aid convoys can be fired upon by Israeli forces, looted by desperate Gazans needing food for their starving families, or hijacked by gangs seeking to sell food and medicine at high prices. There can be rioting at distribution points where women and children cannot compete with aggressive youths and men.

Despite these risks, humanitarian agencies and experts argue that land deliveries are the best option. Consequently, Israel must be persuaded to maximise rather than minimise the flow of essential aid in order to avoid famine, particularly in the north of Gaza.

The most inefficient mode of delivery is by air. Although Jordan originally adopted parachute drops to supply its field hospital in the south and expanded air-drops to deliver meals-ready-to-eat, the number of meals is small and the drop risky. The UAE, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and other countries have joined in this effort.  The last to participate was the US as was the case when US President Joe Biden offered to erect a temporary floating pier to land cooked food and ingredients delivered via the maritime corridor.

For Biden both air-drops and maritime deliveries are “theatre” designed to distract critics of his uninterrupted delivery of non-humanitarian bombs, bullets, and drones to Israel while it conducts warfare which violates every international law governing conflict. During his State of the Nation address on Thursday last week he said the pier will be capable of landing supplies two million meals a day for Gazans.

This sounded like a good idea until Biden’s military men — who will be in charge of building and installing the prefabricated pier — said it would take at least two months. Scores of Gaza’s children and infirm elders may die by the time the pier is in place and famine may hold the north in its deadly grip.

In response to Biden’s plan, Avril Benoît, spokesperson for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders said in a statement, “The US plan for a temporary pier in Gaza to increase the flow of humanitarian aid is a glaring distraction from the real problem: Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate military campaign and punishing siege...Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies. This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem...the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.”

She continued, “In the past months, the US has vetoed three Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire — which is the only way to ensure a real scale up in emergency assistance. We reiterate our call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire to stop the killing ...and allow for the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.”