This is the first time a relief ship has reached the shores of the devastated Gaza Strip in the nearly six-month-long operation by the Israeli forces. The Spanish ship 'Open Arms' with 200 tons of food products reached the coast of Gaza on Friday afternoon.
On March 12, Open Arms anchored off the coast of Gaza three days after leaving the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, one of the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. As there is no seaport in Gaza, the ship had to anchor far from the coast. However, a temporary jetty has been constructed in the Sheikh Azlin area of Gaza City by the initiative of volunteers using the debris of various buildings in Gaza. After unloading the cartons of relief goods from the ship, they were brought to the jetty by boat.
According to the BBC, this 200 tons of relief includes rice, flour, beans, canned vegetables and canned meat.
These food products have been sent under the joint venture and funding of the Spanish charity Open Arms, the United States-based charity World Central Kitchen and the United Arab Emirates. The ship on which the relief was sent is owned by Open Arms.
A third of the more than two million Palestinians living in the poverty-stricken and jobless Gaza Strip depended directly on aid before the Israeli military operation. Relief supplies would normally reach the valley through Gaza's southern Rafah border.
After the start of the operation of the Israeli forces on October 7, the relief supply system to Gaza through the land border is almost stopped. A few countries, including the United States, have been airdropping relief in the valley for some time, but it has not been very profitable in practice.
As a result A few days ago, US President Joe Biden announced that the US wants to send relief by sea to Gaza, and for this purpose US troops are going to build a temporary port in the valley soon. For this reason, the arrival of Open Arms on the Gaza coast is considered a 'trial' of the delivery of relief by water there.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israeli forces searched the ship off the coast of Cyprus before it left for Gaza.
"We did it!" World Center Kitchen founder and chief executive Jose Andres exulted in a message on social media X after Open Arms anchored off the Gaza coast on Friday.
He added that more supplies will be sent to Gaza in the coming weeks.
Incidentally, on October 7, the fighters of Hamas, the controlling group of the Gaza Strip, killed more than 1,200 people, including military-civilian Israelis and foreign citizens, by ambushing Israel's Erez border. Along with that, 240 Israelis and citizens of other countries were taken hostage.
After its establishment in 1948, Israel witnessed the killing of so many people in one day for the first time in its 75-year history. In response to the unprecedented attack, the Israeli Air Force launched an operation in Gaza from that day, and a week later, the ground forces joined the Air Force.
More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the operation so far, and the number of injured has exceeded 73,000. A large proportion of the dead and injured are women, children, adolescents and civilians.