Ship leaving for Gaza as test of humanitarian corridor, says EC chief

The European Commission president said a charity ship will leave for Gaza Friday as part of a pilot operation to test a new humanitarian sea corridor delivering aid directly from Cyprus to the Palestinian enclave.

Ursula von der Leyen said the EU, together with the US and other involved partner countries are launching the sea corridor to deliver large quantities of aid to Gaza that faces a "humanitarian catastrophe."
She told reporters in a joint news conference with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that the corridor will open as early as Sunday, preceded by Friday's pilot voyage by the charity Open Arms.

Efforts to set up a sea route for aid deliveries come amid mounting alarm over the spread of hunger among Gaza's 2.3 million people. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces for months and suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries.

After months of warnings over the risk of famine in Gaza under Israel's bombardment, offensives and siege, hospital doctors have reported 20 malnutrition-related deaths at two northern Gaza hospitals.

In November, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides offered the use of the port of Larnaca, which is a 230-mile (370-kilometer) journey from Gaza.

Aid groups have said their efforts to deliver desperately needed supplies to Gaza have been hampered because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. It is even more difficult to get aid to the isolated north.

Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters late Thursday that air and sea deliveries cannot make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.

EU Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said on Wednesday the bloc would consider air drops, but this would be a last resort and cannot replace ground access to the enclave.
Ujvari said the EU has so far carried out around 40 flights to deliver aid to Gaza, primarily through Egypt.