<small>UPDATE:</small> The European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States announced they are opening a maritime corridor to deliver aid by sea to Gaza. Israel's Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that a charity ship will leave for Gaza on Friday from Cyprus.
Haaretz email — March 8, 2024
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Aid funded by the United Arab Emirates will start entering Gaza [by] sea starting Sunday, following agreements between Israel and international entities. The aid will be delivered by ships loaded in Cyprus and inspected by Israeli authorities. The World Central Kitchen organization will then distribute the aid using hovercraft to a shipping dock controlled by the IDF….
...European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Cyprus this week [in connection with the proposed] humanitarian corridor from the Mediterranean island to support the population in Gaza, her spokesperson said on Wednesday [mentioning inspection of for-the-purpose infrastructure by von der Leven and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides]….
...Cyprus, located some 370 km (230 miles) northwest of Gaza, is the closest European Union member state to the region. It has campaigned for months for the creation of a sustained, one-way sea route carrying aid directly to the enclave….
-— Ha'aretz - Mar 6, 2024 by Jack Khoury, Yaniv Kubovich, & Reuters
The article also reported that the Gaza Health Ministry said over thirty young Gazans had died of hunger and dehydration.
The EU has so far carried out around 40 flights to deliver aid to Gaza, primarily through Egypt. The EU has been the largest provider of external assistance to the Palestinians for the past decade.
Reuters reported Tuesday about a World Food Programme 14-truck convoy looted of about 200 tons by desperate people after it was turned back by the IDF at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint following a three-hour wait.
Last week, a senior U.N. aid official told the Security Council that at least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip - one quarter of the population - are one step away from famine.
Also that the World Health Organization said that in January
child malnutrition levels in northern Gaza were "particularly extreme" and about three times higher than in the south of the Palestinian enclave where more aid has been available… ...that one-in-six children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
UNICEF concurred. (Donate via that link.)
In aid-worker slang, “looting” of aid resources by desperate individuals is known as "spontaneous aid distribution." Even if they have to risk being shot, trampled, or killed.
On March 3, Chef José Andrés of World Central Kitchen, which has been sending significant aid into Gaza, rejected criticism of joint US-Jordan food airdrops, saying people are desperate there.
..."We need to bring food into Gaza any way we can..,"
According to the U.N., more than 570,000 people in Gaza are on the brink of experiencing famine levels of hunger...
While Andrés said the broader goal should be to simply allow a "daily, constant and massive" flow of trucks into Gaza, "I don't think we need to be criticizing that Jordan, America are doing airdrops. If anything, we should be applauding any initiative that brings food into Gaza."
He was responding to a recent statement from an official with the anti-poverty group Oxfam [who] said the airdrops "mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza."
Andrés [said] "This is probably written by somebody that doesn't have -- who has a lot of time on his hands."...
“Allow more aid into Gaza now,” pleads UN health agency chief.
On Tuesday
U.S. National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that Washington is “exploring other channels to get aid into Gaza, including a maritime route. To that end, we are looking at both military and commercial options to move assistance by sea.”
The maritime plan has gained new momentum [with] images of despair, the injured and bloodstained food [in the convoy crowd tragedy last week.] The event that shocked the world has led the United States to join in the airdrop of food, a controversial measure because the quantities are smaller, and it is considered a last resort. Jordan, France and the United Arab Emirates have already used this method….
Four specific conditions prevent effective distribution of
...basic food items from coming into northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have remained and with thousands more returning. One, Israel has prevented aid trucks from reaching the area. Two, there was insufficient fuel for Gazan trucks to carry the aid to the north. Three, the few trucks that did make it through were looted on the way. [Fourth], drivers are afraid to make the journey without protection for themselves and their cargo. The aid worker told Haaretz that several of her colleagues were trapped in northern Gaza. "Today, they are crying and tell us they have no food and no water, but we can't help them," the aid worker said. "So why do we even exist?"
Not only people in the north are hungry, the aid worker stressed. "In conditions of hunger, people do what they can to survive, be they individuals, in clans or in any other organized group on a common basis," she said. "That is completely expected." Like the diplomat who spoke with Haaretz, she said this phenomenon is prevalent in similar situations worldwide.
But she said the phenomenon of gangs looting in Gaza emerged relatively late compared to other places she has worked, where the social fabric unraveled due to major disasters. "In other places, it happened in 48 hours," she noted. "Here, it took four months."
Bloomberg Opinion March 6 — US Must Demand More Aid for Gaza to Avert More Deaths. Getting More Aid to Gaza Shouldn’t Be This Difficult…
CNN - March 7 Biden directs US military to establish aid port in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war looms over his State of the Union
IMPACTFUL NINJA lists its “9 Best Charities” for Gaza.
Or, click on “Learn more about the nonprofits” at this CNN February 29, 2024 “How to help” article.
Postscript: the fact that Gazans are doing “spontaneous aid distribution” should underline the value of considering landing aid from Cyprus across the entire coast of Gaza, like the allies landed 160,000 troops on Normandy. The more widespread the landing (by air or sea) of aid drops, the obviously harder it would be for Hamas personnel to locate, seize, sequester and use much of it, given that they are a fraction of the total population, even if a large fracton of the remaining able-bodied population. Inundate Gaza with aid all over, and they’ll achieve distribution. Aid recipients should always be part of the mechanisms, anyway, instead of positioned as beggar-victims and objectified.