The ship Open Arms will predictably set sail this afternoon from the Cypriot port of Larnaca in the direction of Gaza with 200 tons of food from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) project, by chef José Andrés. If the weather allows it, the flagship of the Spanish oenagé will reach the shores of the Palestinian strip in a couple of days, as its founder, Òscar Camps, said yesterday.
The key to the mission is, of course, the permission of the Israeli coordination body with the Palestinian territories and they count on it, as Camps pointed out yesterday. It is about establishing a humanitarian corridor that is “dynamic and scalable, depending on the means available”, that is to say, that can increase, especially if forces are joined.
In this regard, both Óscar Camps and José Andrés have emphasized the fact that it is their own initiative, in which they had nothing to do with the plans presented on Thursday by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, during his speech on the state of the Union, to build a floating port in front of Gaza, nor the humanitarian corridor that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has spoken about, although the latter could support the initiative of WCK and Open Arms. “ We need a lot of people helping, but this is ultimately a WCK initiative with the support of Open Arms, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan… From Europe, obviously, because we are doing it from Cyprus, they are giving us facilities , but this is a mission created by WCK with the support of Open Arms and the Emirates”, stated José Andrés in a statement.
The project started two months ago and since then it has been waiting in Cyprus, where the President of the European Commission went yesterday to meet with President Nikos Christodúlides. Von der Leyen stated that the humanitarian corridor would start this weekend, with “a first pilot trip leaving Cyprus today” (by yesterday). Despite this, Òscar Camps pointed out that he has neither seen Von der Leyen in Larnaca nor has the Commission contacted the mission. In line with what José Ándrés said, Camps commented that “no one has told me that we are nobody’s test”, but that he welcomes the European Union and “let everyone join”.
The construction of a maritime corridor reveals Western impotence in view of Israel’s lack of will to stop the catastrophe taking place inside that territory. Since Hamas led the massacre on October 7, the death toll has exceeded 30,000 (the Pentagon has acknowledged the death of 25,000 women and children).
At the same time, the 30,000 Gazans who live in the north of the strip are on the brink of starvation. In recent days, ten children have died due to hunger, according to the WHO. Unicef, for its part, calculates that one out of every six minors who live in this area suffer from malnutrition.
However, there is no information on what the logistics of the distribution will be that will have to bring the food from the port inland. Nor do the organizations that participate in the humanitarian corridor want to be more explicit. One of the reasons is that Israel reserves the duty to review all humanitarian aid that is seized in Larnaca. Cyprus has already said that it will interview all the countries that, in one way or another, participate in the operation.
The Israeli Government has considered arming civilians in Gaza to provide security for aid convoys, according to official sources in the Israel Hayom newspaper. Months of attacks have destroyed the last vestige of order inside the strip, and Gaza’s municipal police refuse to carry out these tasks for fear of being targeted by Israeli forces.
On February 29, a distribution of humanitarian aid ended with the slaughter of a hundred people queuing. Yesterday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released the results of an investigation indicating that the Israeli military did not shoot at applicants asking for help, but at individuals they considered suspicious. The massacre was the latest evidence of Israel’s inability to provide humanitarian assistance to the population it keeps under siege in Gaza. Yesterday, five people also died and ten others were injured as a result of packages falling with help from the sky on the strip.
Before the start of the hostilities, 500 trucks entered Gaza every day, while now barely a hundred arrive. “The needs are enormous, hence the need to be able to go further and be able to offer all the necessary help”, indicated a community spokesperson in Brussels.
