A ship ferrying some 200 tonnes of food to Gaza left the Cypriot port of Larnaca early on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a new sea route to relieve a Palestinian population on the brink of famine.
The mission is being organised by the US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and comes as the US military readies plans to build an emergency pier to get much more aid in and avert a bigger humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
WCK said it was creating a temporary landing jetty in Gaza with material from destroyed buildings and rubble. It said it had another 500 tonnes of aid ready to go in Cyprus.
"Our goal is to establish a maritime highway of boats and barges stocked with millions of meals continuously headed towards Gaza," Mr Andrés said.
The charity ship Open Arms was seen sailing out of Larnaca towing a barge containing around 200 tonnes of flour, rice and protein.
Britain is joining the United States and other allies to create a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said last week after the pier project was announced by US President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address.
But the temporary harbour “will take months to stand up”, Lord Cameron said as he urged Israel to open up access to its functioning port of Ashdod to allow aid from Cyprus to be driven to Gaza.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme it was “incredibly frustrating” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not heeding calls to open more crossing points, allow more UN staff into Gaza and switch on water and electricity in the territory.
The United Nations has stepped up warnings of famine in Gaza after months of Israeli siege and bombardment sparked by the Hamas attacks of October 7.
