Perilous crossings

A second convoy of vessels carrying 400 tons of food aid to 300,000 starving Palestinians in war-ravaged northern Gaza set sail on Saturday from the Cypriot port of Larnaca along a 210-nautical-mile maritime corridor.

The operation was led by Spanish tugboat Open Arms and included river cargo boat Jennifer, a Cypriot-flagged tugboat called Lydra Dynamic, and a shallow platform dubbed Ares. The supplies delivered by this mission provided one million meals, double the number carried by the first mid-March convoy.

Open Arms carried two search and rescue boats with powerful outboard motors which pushed the platform loaded with pallets of boxed supplies to the makeshift pier built of rubble by its partner US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) founded by Spanish celebrity chef José Andrés. Jennifer is equipped with a crane which unloaded the supplies it was carrying. Lydra Dynamic carried with equipment for delivery when the mini flotilla arrived.

Last Friday, Gulf Today visited Open Arms and the port’s “Warehouse 3” where thousands of white boxes bearing the WCK logo and Emirati flag were stacked on pallets. Filled with pasta, rice, tinned foods, and dates donated by the UAE, the boxes await the third voyage to Gaza along the humanitarian maritime corridor created by Cyprus to avert all-out famine in Israeli besieged, blockaded and bombarded northern Gaza.

Open Arms is a 50-year-old tugboat converted to rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe. The tug is ideal for the Gaza mission. Named after the Spanish charity which launched the vessel, Open Arms is seaworthy, strong, and technologically up-to-date. Its 20-member crew is dedicated to good works, however difficult and dangerous.

In Open Arms’ wheelhouse, the tug’s control centre, there is a huge and handsome wooden wheel for steering but crew member Josep Auglada said it was used only for emergencies and pointed to a rather plain black instrument with a slender handle which normally guides the tug.

Captain Marc Reig Creus looked grim when commenting on the mission. “We are not allowed by Israel to put a finger on Gaza, but we have seen the terrible destruction [from offshore] and heard explosions.” He continued, “The people need our help.” He admitted that Open Arms’ mission in the Mediterranean has been controversial as critics argue rescue encourages migrants to risk their lives undertaking perilous crossings. But, he insisted, “We must do it.” Gaza is also a “must” for Open Arms.

Captain Reig Creus said Open Arms would normally take one day to reach the pier on the Gaza coast, but the loaded platform slows down the convoy. Commenting on what happens when they arrive, he said, “We don’t have a plan. We don’t know what we will find when we arrive off Gaza. The shore is [uncharted] sand” so the ships must avoid getting stranded on a sand bank.

Open Arms coordinator Esther Camps — daughter of founder Oscar Camps— pointed out that once they arrive, “Conditions must be perfect: no wind, no waves.” After landing, the supplies are loaded by a crane onto lorries for delivery to WCK facilities. WCK has more than 60 kitchens feeding thousands of Gaza in the south of the strip.

Camps said, “We need Israeli approval to enter the corridor and Israeli naval vessels are always in sight. We are in hourly contact by radio. Also, with the Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Larnaca. Both sides are aware of what is happening.” She added, “We will make as many missions as we can.”

The maritime humanitarian corridor, dubbed the “Amalthea” initiative, was proposed last year by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides but an initial effort to deliver a cargo by British naval landing craft was scuttled by Israel and the supplies were eventually off-loaded at the Egyptian port of El-Arish, loaded onto lorries and joined the long lines of lorries laden with food and medicine waiting to enter Gaza through the Rafah terminal.

The maritime corridor is backed by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and United States president Joe Biden who has ordered the US navy to construct on the Gaza coast a huge floating pier which could begin operation by May. It remains to be seen if Israel — which has been condemned by the International Court of Justice for minimising food aid transported by lorries on land – will allow large volume of supplies to enter Gaza via the floating pier.

Once operating fully, the maritime route could significantly ease the crisis caused by the shortages of food and medicine to Gaza, particularly to the north. Providing sufficient supplies to Gaza’s 2.3 million people is all the more important at this time because Israel is disrupting the flow of aid to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency caring for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA is the agency with the staff, infrastructure, and organisation to deliver food and medicine to Gaza’s hungry, traumatized and fearful population.

Before the war, 70 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza depended on UNRWA for rations, health care, education, and welfare services. Six months into Israel’s war on Gaza, UNRWA is feeding 1.2 million and 1.9 million displaced Gazans are residing in 154 UNRWA schools or nearby. Gazans who remain in the Israeli-blockaded north face famine: two dozen infants have died from starvation while thousands of children suffer from acute malnutrition.

UNRWA was founded in December 1949 to serve more than 700,000 Palestinians forced to flee their homes during Israel’s 1948 war of conquest. Having survived one war after another in the Palestinian territories as well as conflicts in host countries Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, UNRWA has become an indispensable quasi-government for 5.9 largely stateless Palestinian refugees. UNRWA’s “citizens” outnumber those of two-thirds of the world’s states, including Poland, Morocco, Ukraine, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Australia.

Nevertheless, Israel – backed by the supine Biden administration — seeks to defund, deprive UNRWA of food and medicine, shut down its operations, and destroy or dismantle its infrastructure. No combination of UN or international relief agencies can replace UNRWA which not only operates in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories but also in the three economically challenged host countries.