Aid ship with 1,200 tonnes of food approaches Gaza; will it get there?

Having set off from Cyprus, a ship loaded with 1,200 tonnes of food supplies for the Gaza Strip is approaching the Israeli port of Ashdod on 19 August, Tuesday, in a renewed effort to alleviate the worsening crisis as famine threatens Palestine.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel is loaded with 52 containers carrying food aid such as pasta, rice, baby food and canned goods.

Israeli customs officials have already screened the supplies at the Cypriot port of Limassol, from where the ship departed on Monday.

Some 700 tonnes of the aid is from Cyprus, purchased with money donated by the United Arab Emirates to the so-called Amalthea Fund, set up last year for donors to help with seaborne aid.

The rest comes from Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious order in Malta and the Kuwaiti non-governmental organisation Al Salam Association.

“The situation is beyond dire,” Cyprus foreign minister Constantinos Kombos told the Associated Press.

Cyprus was the staging area last year for 22,000 tonnes of aid deliveries by ship directly to Gaza through a pier operated by the international charity World Central Kitchen and a US military-run docking facility known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system.

By late July 2024, aid groups pulled out of the project, ending a mission plagued by repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other emergency supplies could get to those in need.

The Cypriot foreign ministry said Tuesday's mission is led by the United Nations, but is a coordinated effort — once offloaded at Ashdod, UN aid employees would arrange for the aid to be trucked to storage areas and food stations operated by the World Central Kitchen.

The charity, which was behind the first aid shipment to Gaza from Cyprus last year aboard a tug-towed barge, is widely trusted in the battered territory.

“The contribution of everyone involved is crucial and their commitment incredible,” Kombos said.

Shipborne deliveries can bring much larger quantities of aid than the air drops that several nations have recently made in Gaza.

The latest shipment comes a day after Hamas said it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire. Israel has not approved the latest proposal so far.

Indeed, Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks stalled last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin has dismissed reports of starvation in Gaza are “lies” promoted by Hamas.

But the UN last week warned that starvation and malnutrition in the Palestinian territory are at their highest levels since since the war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which the militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians.

Gaza's health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said the Palestinian death toll from from 22 months of war has passed 62,000.

It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

AP inputs lightly edited for clarity and local context