Ship carrying food to Gaza must leave Cyprus

A ship carrying tons of food is due to leave Cyprus and head to Gaza, where people are facing widespread hunger.

The Spanish ship will use a recently opened sea route to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged territory.

Sunday, a US A military ship was en route to the Mediterranean, carrying materials to build a temporary jetty in Gaza to facilitate the delivery of aid.

The maritime corridor was launched by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in response to what she called a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

The ship, which is owned by Spanish humanitarian group Open Arms, will carry out a pilot voyage to test the safety of the route.

It is docked at the Cypriot port of Larnaca where it is preparing to deliver food from World Central Kitchen, an American charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.

Israel said it welcomed the maritime corridor, but warned it would also need security checks.

“The Cypriot initiative will increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after a security check according to Israeli standards,” said Lior Haiat, spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Open Arms founder Oscar Camps said the ship was expected to depart today and would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location.

World Central Kitchen is building a dock to receive the ship when it arrives in Gaza, where the group has 60 food kitchens.

Mr Camps said the ship would pull a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of rice and flour near the coast of Gaza.

Pontoon boats will then be used for the final complicated step of towing the barge to the dock.

Camps said his group had been planning the delivery for two months, long before the head of the European Commission declared the launch of the security corridor.

Efforts to establish a sea route for aid delivery come amid growing concern over the spread of hunger among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces for months and has suffered long cuts to food deliveries.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has stepped up his public criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Biden said he believed Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in the way he is approaching his war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its sixth month. Speaking to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

However, he said Mr Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives lost as a result of the actions taken”, adding: “You cannot allow 30,000 more Palestinian deaths.”

President Biden used his State of the Union address on Thursday to reiterate his demands that Mr. Netanyahu authorize more aid to Gaza.

“To Israeli leaders, I say this: humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” the president said.

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