Opening on the weekend
Germany involved in maritime corridor for Gaza Strip
March 8, 2024, 3:43 p.m
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Several states want to boost supplies for the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. To this end, US President Biden is holding out the prospect of building a temporary port. Together with other countries, supplies are to begin by sea – and quickly.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is promising the opening of a maritime aid corridor between the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and the Gaza Strip this weekend. “We are close to opening this corridor, hopefully this Sunday,” she said at the port of Larnaca in Cyprus. This should provide the Palestinians in the coastal area with urgently needed aid, she announced during a visit to EU member Cyprus.
A pilot trial of food aid collected by a charity and supported by the United Arab Emirates could be launched later today. It is still unclear where the ships will land the relief supplies. A ship could take around ten hours from Larnaca to the Gaza Strip, around 370 kilometers away.
Due to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, the EU Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain and the USA decided to set up the aid corridor, it said in a joint statement. According to “Spiegel”, the Bundeswehr is examining whether the pier could be supported by the Navy. It remains unclear, however, whether the Navy will actually be used.
US representative: Port construction will take weeks
US President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union address that the US military wanted to build a temporary port on the coast of the Gaza Strip. This should be able to accommodate “large ships with food, water, medicine and emergency accommodation”. According to US government officials, the construction, the main element of which is a temporary pier, will take several weeks and will be carried out in cooperation with local “allies” as well as the United Nations and humanitarian organizations.
This means that the coastal strip should also be able to receive humanitarian aid by sea. The port is expected to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians by “hundreds of additional truckloads” per day. The USA and EU states have been urging Israel, whose military invaded the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack on October 7th, for weeks to deliver more aid to the population. After five months of war, the humanitarian situation in the area is catastrophic. According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), all 2.2 million people living there are on the brink of famine.
Israel welcomed the planned maritime aid corridor. The initiative will “enable the expansion of humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip,” explained Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat at