May 20, 2024
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A shipment of humanitarian aid left a port in Cyprus on Thursday morning and was on its way to the U.S-built pier in Gaza, the first delivery to the newly built ramp, Cyprus’ foreign minister said.
The United Nations says people in Gaza are on the brink of famine. Earlier this week, Israel sent tanks to seize Gaza's nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt, shutting down a vital border entry point needed to get assistance into the battered enclave.
It remains uncertain whether Israel will launch an all-out invasion of Rafah as international efforts for a cease-fire continue. Israel has said that an assault on Rafah is crucial to its goal of destroying Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 seized as hostages and abducted to Gaza.
The United States opposes a Rafah invasion. The war has killed over 34,800 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, and has driven some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.
The U.S. vessel Sagamore, loaded with humanitarian assistance, departed from the port of Larnaca early on Thursday with the aim of transferring as much aid to Gaza as possible through the maritime corridor, said Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos.
The vessel's voyage comes about two months after Biden gave the order for the building of the large floating platform several miles off the Gaza coast to be a launching pad for deliveries since not enough aid was getting in through land crossings, which require stringent checks by Israel, and by air drops.
The U.S. military finished the construction of the temporary pier and causeway, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Tuesday, but plans to move it into place on the shore were on hold due to weather and other logistics.
Singh told reporters that U.S. military ships and the assembled pier were at the Ashdod port and that high winds and sea swells made it too dangerous to install the pier at the Gaza beach.
An official from Cyprus told The Associated Press that if conditions didn't allow for the vessel to offload directly onto the pier, it would load smaller vessels, which would transport the aid directly to Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the operation.
Still, humanitarian workers say that the most effective way to get assistance in is by land. Israel said it reopened on Wednesday the Kerem Shalom crossing, shut after Hamas mortars killed four Israeli soldiers nearby in an attack on Sunday, but aid groups said no trucks were entering the Gaza side.
