A US military ship is sailing towards the Middle East past Cyprus to the coast of Gaza, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, to better enhance the supply of aid into Gaza
The support ship, General Frank S Besson, set sail from a military base in the state of Virginia on Saturday.
This latest advancement in terms of building a port for Gaza has came after President Joe Biden said they would build the floating harbour to help get aid into Gaza by sea.
The UN has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” and children are starving to death.
The US and Jordan carried out an airdrop on Sunday, parachuting in more than 11,500 meals that included rice, flour, pasta, and canned food, the US military said.
Aid deliveries by land and air have proved difficult and dangerous.
The World Food Programme had to pause land deliveries after its convoys came under gunfire and looting. And on Friday, there were reports that five people had been killed by a falling aid package, when its parachute failed to open properly.
US Official statements
The ship departed “less than 36 hours” after President Biden made his announcement, Central Command wrote on X.
It is “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies” to Gaza, the statement continued.
The Pentagon has said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops, but, sit seems that none of them would go ashore.
Charities that were working with Gaza have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long.
Meanwhile, an aid ship containing some 200 tonnes of food had been expected to set sail from a port in Larnaca, Cyprus on Sunday afternoon, Cypriot media reported.
However as Sunday night was done and went into Monday morning, it was still docked in Cyprus with no show of any movement.
The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), which has provided the food aid, they also told that: “This maritime operation remains a quickly evolving and fluid situation… we plan to embark as soon as possible.”
It follows an EU announcement that a new sea route would be opened over the weekend to allow aid to sail directly from Cyprus – the closest EU country to Gaza.
The ship, Open Arms, belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name. Exactly where it plans to dock when it reaches Gaza has not been publicly revealed, although spectators believe it will be docked in the southern coast.
Gaza has no functioning port and its surrounding waters are too shallow for large vessels to pass through. But, WCK said its team had been building a jetty off the coast to receive the aid.
The charity added that its plans are “not related” to the floating pier they are currently aiming to build.
Israel has welcomed the ocean initiative with open arms, and said aid would be delivered after security checks were carried out in Cyprus “in accordance with Israeli standards” delaying the process of aid to enter Gaza.
Western countries have pressed Israel to expand land deliveries by facilitating more routes and opening additional crossings into Israel and Gaza as the holy month of Ramadhan approaches
Aid lorries have been entering the south of Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of the Israeli ground offensive strike on Gaza, has been largely cut off from assistance in recent months as previously mentioned.
Israel has been accused of hampering aid efforts, and an independent UN expert last week accused it of mounting “a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Yeela Cytrin, a legal adviser at the Israeli mission to the UN, responded that “Israel utterly rejects allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war”, before walking out in protest on what was asked of Israel regarding the aid and other settlements.
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