The first aid ship is sailing to Gaza, but much more is needed
A ship carrying more than 200 tons of food for the Gaza Strip left Cyprus on Tuesday morning in the first test of a maritime corridor designed to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians the United Nations says are fleeing. brink of famine.
The ship, named Open Arms after the Spanish aid group that delivered it, was the first ship authorized to deliver aid to Gaza since 2005, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive branch, who led the effort has supported. and describes it as a “pilot project” that could pave the way for more sea shipments.
The rice, flour, lentils, beans and canned tuna, beef and chicken that the ship transported on a barge were supplied by World Central Kitchen, a charity founded by José Andrés, the famous Spanish-American chef . The United Arab Emirates provided financing and logistical support for the operation, he said.
“We may fail, but the greatest failure will be not trying!” Mr Andrés said Tuesday on social media.
Still, the food was only a fraction of what would be needed to satisfy widespread hunger in Gaza, and aid officials stressed that it is no substitute for the amount of goods that could be delivered by truck if Israel were to open more crossings into Gaza . Gaza. The enclave has been under a near-total blockade since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
With no end in sight to the war in Gaza, clashes flared up again along another front, Israel’s northern border, between Israeli forces and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies, both backed by Iran, and the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah fired more than a hundred rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday morning, in one of the heaviest barrages in months of almost daily cross-border attacks, the Israeli military said. Israeli fighter jets retaliated by attacking a number of locations linked to Hezbollah. Lebanon.