Europe

Flotilla’s mission is to ferry one million meals from Cyprus to famine-gripped Gaza

Hundreds of pallets of flour, tinned goods, rice and pulses in Larnaca are much-needed food aid for Palestinians under attack by Israel

The Open Arms vessel docked in the Cypriot port of Larnaca: It will take three days to reach the makeshift pier on the Gaza coast. Photograph: Iakovos Hatzistavrou/AFP via Getty

Michael Jansen's face
Michael Jansen in Larnaca
Fri Mar 29 2024 - 17:03

A mini flotilla was due to set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Friday night on a second mission to war-ravaged Gaza. The Open Arms Spanish search-and-rescue tugboat will be accompanied by the riverboat Jennifer, another tugboat carrying machinery, and a platform (barge) loaded with 400 tons of food for 300,000 Palestinians facing starvation in northern Gaza.

The Open Arms vessel – which belongs to a Spanish non-governmental organisation of the same – made the first voyage along the maritime corridor in mid-March. It is due back in Larnaca on April 5th.

At some distance from Open Arms’s berth, a port warehouse is filled with hundreds of pallets of flour, tinned goods, rice and pulses donated by the United Arab Emirates to the ship’s partner, the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK), which was founded by Spanish celebrity chef José Andrés. The ship’s supplies can provide a million meals to the famine-gripped area.

Open Arms captain Marc Reig Creus said he and his crew of 20 were dedicated to this effort. “We are not allowed by Israel to put a finger on Gaza, but we have seen the terrible destruction [from offshore],” he said, shaking his head grimly as he recalled the scene. “The people need our help.”

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Reig Creus has spent six years on the 50-year-old renovated Open Arms tugboat, rescuing migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.

An Open Arms aid group vessel approaches the shores of Gaza towing a barge with 200 tons of humanitarian aid earlier in March. Photograph: Mohammed Hajjar/AP

He said it would take three days to reach the makeshift pier on the Gaza coast. It normally would take Open Arms one day, but the platform delays the journey. “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 vessels must avoid grounding. Small motor boats carried on the tugboat will push the platform to the short pier, which is made of rubble.

Open Arms co-ordinator Esther Camps said: “Conditions must be perfect: no wind, no waves.”

Once ashore, the supplies are loaded by crane onto lorries for delivery. The WCK has more than 60 kitchens feeding Palestinians in southern Gaza and plans to expand their number to 100.

[ Children in Gaza dying from hunger as ceasefire negotiations progress slowly ]

[ First ship carrying humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza ]

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, [we are in contact with] with the Cyprus Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Larnaca. Both sides are aware of what is happening.”

Camps added: “We will make as many missions as we can.”

The Gaza health ministry this week reported 23 fatalities from starvation among children, while the UN and international relief agencies have warned that hundreds face acute malnutrition and death.

The Open Arms in Larnaca on Friday: 'We don’t know what we will find when we arrive off Gaza,' says its captain, Marc Reig Creus. 'The shore is [uncharted] sand.' Photograph: Michael Jansen

The 210-nautical-mile maritime humanitarian corridor, dubbed the “Amalthea” initiative, was proposed last autumn by Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides who has received support from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden.

[ Top UN court orders Israel to ensure more aid reaches Gaza ]

[ Israel-Hamas war: First aid ship leaves for Gaza as agencies say population on brink of famine ]

Biden has dispatched a US naval vessel to Gaza to construct a huge floating pier off Gaza which could be in operation by May. This could receive large volumes of humanitarian aid. The UN and relief agencies accuse Israel of severely restricting aid, particularly to the devastated and depopulated north of Gaza.

According to the territory’s health ministry, the death toll in Gaza since October 7th stands at more than 32,600, with 75,000 injured – 70 per cent of whom are women and children – and thousands lost beneath the rubble.

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Israel-Hamas conflictCyprusGaza StripPalestine