Aid ship expected to leave Cyprus and head to Gaza

Charity loaded humanitarian supplies on the Open Arms vessel, which will travel on a new maritime corridor

A ship laden with humanitarian aid intended for Gaza is expected to leave Cyprus this weekend.

A US charity said it was loading aid for Gaza on to a boat in Cyprus, which will be the first shipment to the war-ravaged territory along a maritime corridor the European Commission hopes will open this weekend.

The Spanish-flagged vessel, Open Arms, docked three weeks ago in the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, the closest European Union country to the Gaza Strip.

“World Central Kitchen teams are in Cyprus loading pallets of humanitarian aid on to a boat headed to northern Gaza,” the charity said.

“We have been preparing for weeks alongside our trusted NGO partner Open Arms for the opening of a maritime aid corridor that would allow us to scale our efforts in the region,” it added.

The charity said it plans to tow a barge loaded with provisions for the people of Gaza, where dire humanitarian conditions more than five months into the Israel-Hamas war have led some countries to airdrop food and other assistance.

“The endeavour to establish a humanitarian maritime corridor in Gaza is making progress, and our tugboat stands prepared to embark at a moment’s notice, laden with tons of food, water, and vital supplies for Palestinian civilians,” Open Arms said on social media platform X.

In Larnaca, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission chief, had earlier expressed hope that a maritime corridor could open this Sunday, although details remained unclear.

She said a “pilot operation” would be launched on Friday, aided by the United Arab Emirates, which secured “the first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza”.

There are no functioning ports in Gaza and officials did not say where the initial shipments would go, whether they would be subject to inspection by Israel or who would distribute the aid.

The Pentagon said on Friday that a US plan to establish a “temporary offshore maritime pier” in Gaza would take up to 60 days and would probably involve more than 1,000 US personnel.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented 7 October attack on southern Israel, which resulted in about 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians. Israel has responded with a relentless military offensive that the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said has killed at least 30,878 people, most of them women and children.

Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has maintained control over its airspace and territorial waters, said it “welcomes” the planned maritime corridor.