200 tonnes of aid is headed to Gaza by sea — with no port to unload it

A ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday as part of a pilot project to deliver supplies to a population that aid agencies say is on the verge of famine.

However, though they welcomed the project, senior UN officials said it could not replace the delivery of humanitarian aid by land from Egypt and Jordan. Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it had managed to get the first aid convoy into Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip since Feb. 20.

The charity ship Open Arms was seen sailing out of Larnaca port, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein. The mission was funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates and organized by U.S.-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).

The voyage to Gaza takes about 15 hours, and a heavy tow barge could considerably lengthen the trip, possibly by up to two days. Cyprus, the European Union state closest to the site of the Israel-Hamas war, is just over 200 miles (320 kilometres) northwest of Gaza.

The U.S. military said one of its vessels, the General Frank S. Besson, was also en route to provide humanitarian relief to Gaza by sea. Separately, it said it airdropped aid into northern Gaza on Tuesday along with Jordan's airforce.

With aid agencies saying deliveries into Gaza by land have been held up by bureaucratic obstacles and security concerns since the start of the war, attention has shifted toward alternative routes including sea and airdrops.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Tuesday that negotiators seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were not close to a deal.

Given the lack of port infrastructure in Gaza, WCK said it was building a landing jetty with material from destroyed buildings and rubble, an initiative separate to a plan announced by U.S. President Joe Biden last week to build a temporary pier.

Construction of the jetty is "well underway," WCK founder Jose Andres said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, accompanied by a picture of bulldozers apparently levelling out ground close to the sea.

WCK activation manager Juan Camilo Jimenez told Reuters a second vessel would depart from Cyprus within the next few days.

Aid agencies say such efforts can provide only limited relief as long as most land crossings to the coastal Palestinian enclave are completely sealed off by Israel.

Some Gazans also struck a skeptical note about aid deliveries by sea, worrying it could become an alternative to overland shipments.

"I am not a political analyst, but I think [the jetty idea] has political objectives which are not known to us, as Palestinian citizens," said Jehad Assad, a displaced Palestinian from Khan Younis in central Gaza.

"I think the land crossings are enough for aid to enter the Gaza Strip."