“Open Arms” arrived this Friday off the coast of the Gaza Strip with 200 tons of humanitarian aid after three days of travel from Cyprus, becoming the first ship to use the humanitarian corridor Recently opened on the island to deliver aid to the people of Gaza after more than five months of Israeli military offensive.

“Open Arms is already off the coast of Gaza as part of its joint mission with World Central Kitchen. after 72 hours of navigation from Larnaca, Cyprus,” the organization said in a post on the social network X.

“We are the first ship to open this humanitarian sea corridor, which will allow the supply of food to mitigate the extreme situation that millions of people are suffering in the Sector.”

The organization, in turn, emphasized that the ship is carrying cargo 200 tons “flour, rice, lentils, chickpeas, tuna and other staple foods that will become a million dishes“. “We will never forget this moment. “This is history,” he added, before thanking chef José Andrés and the “great team” at World Central Kitchen for their collaboration in bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The Open Arms trip is the first of the so-called Operation Amalthea which aims to create maritime humanitarian corridor between Cyprus and the Palestinian enclave. However, the disembarkation and distribution of aid to the sector now faces significant logistical and security challenges that would previously have been subject to inspections by Israeli authorities.

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In this sense, the authorities of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), appealed to the international community with a request “rethink” the “viability” of the sea corridor and expressed doubts about this mechanism due to the volume of assistance and the slowness of the process. So they demanded “pressure” from Israel for convoys to enter by land.

The United Nations and various non-governmental organizations have condemned extensive restrictions imposed by Israel delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, plunged into a very serious humanitarian crisis due to the military offensive launched after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which turned on the red light in front of risk of widespread famineespecially given the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.

Europe Press