The European Union and the United States announced, Friday March 8, the upcoming opening of a maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza to transport humanitarian aid to the hungry Palestinian territory constantly bombarded by Israel, after five months of war. This announcement followed that of US President Joe Biden on a major maritime humanitarian operation, according to US officials, involving the construction of a “temporary pier” in Gaza to allow “massive aid”.
Israel “welcomed” the upcoming opening of the planned maritime humanitarian corridor between Cyprus and the Gaza Strip, nearly 380 km apart. This initiative “will allow the increase of aid [entering] Gaza after a security check corresponding to Israeli standards,” foreign affairs spokesperson Lior Haiat wrote on X.
The United States is putting increasing pressure on Israel, its ally, which has besieged Gaza since October 9 and only lets in aid from Egypt. According to the UN, of the 2.4 million people in the cramped territory, 2.2 million are at risk of famine with severe shortages of food and drinking water and 1.7 have been displaced by fighting and Israeli strikes which also caused colossal destruction and reduced the hospital system to shreds.
“We are very close to the opening of this corridor, hopefully this Sunday,” declared the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the port of Larnaca in southern Cyprus, on European Union country geographically closest to Gaza. A first pilot operation will be launched on Friday, she added, accompanied by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
An “almost inevitable widespread famine”, according to the UN
In recent days, several Arab and Western countries, including the United States and France, have carried out numerous airdrops of food. But these airdrops, as well as sending aid by sea, cannot replace the land route, believes the UN, which warns of an “almost inevitable widespread famine” in Gaza. “Diversifying land supply routes remains the optimal solution,” according to Sigrid Kaag, the UN aid coordinator for Gaza.
“I am working hard to achieve an immediate ceasefire of at least six weeks,” Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address Thursday, calling on Israel not to use humanitarian aid as a “bargaining currency”. According to U.S. officials, building a “temporary pier” in Gaza will take several weeks and does not mean deploying U.S. troops on the ground.
The entry of aid and its delivery to different sectors of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the North, also remains very difficult due to fighting, bombings, destruction and sometimes looting. Occupied by the Israeli army from 1967 to 2005, the Gaza Strip, already subject to an Israeli blockade since Hamas took power in 2007, is bordered by Israel, Egypt, which keeps its border closed, and the Mediterranean Sea. .
Unsuccessful negotiations
“The Israeli army will continue to operate throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Thursday. To achieve “total victory”, Israel says it is preparing a ground offensive on Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip against the closed border with Egypt, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed according to the ‘UN.
After four fruitless days in Cairo, negotiations on a truce involving the mediating countries – Egypt, Qatar, United States – are due to resume next week in Cairo, according to pro-government Egyptian media Al-Qahera News.
The mediators hoped to reach an agreement on a truce combined with a release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners before Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, which begins early next week. Hamas is demanding, before any agreement, a definitive ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which Israel refuses.
