For the first time, relief supplies were brought to the Gaza Strip by ship. The “Open Arms” has completely unloaded its cargo on the coast. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr dropped the first relief supplies from the air.
According to its operator, the ship “Open Arms” has completely unloaded its aid supplies for the Gaza Strip. The cargo is now being prepared for distribution in Gaza, said the non-governmental organization World Central Kitchen (WCK). She did not provide any information on when and where the aid would be distributed.
“We did it,” explained WCK founder José Andrés on the online service X. The dispatch of the first aid ship was a “test”. “We can bring thousands of tons (of aid) every week,” he stressed.
Almost 200 tons of food unloaded
The “Open Arms” had towed the barge, which, according to World Central Kitchen, was carrying almost 200 tons of food, to a pier on the coast in the southwest of the city of Gaza. There the load was distributed among twelve trucks. According to the NGO, the food delivered will be used to prepare 300,000 meals for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is particularly precarious after five months of war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas.
The “Open Arms” had previously set off from the Cypriot port of Larnaca, where Israeli authorities had inspected the cargo. World Central Kitchen is currently preparing a second ship in Larnaca loaded with 240 tons of relief supplies. It is unclear when this ship can leave for the Gaza Strip.
A second ship is being prepared in the port of Lanarka in Cyprus to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.
The “Open Arms” mission is considered a pilot project to improve care for more than two million people in the Gaza Strip. There is hope that more ships will deliver relief supplies by sea. Independent of this project, the US is planning a maritime corridor to Gaza, for which the US Army will create a temporary port near the coast.
German Air Force drops first aid supplies
At the same time, international aid is being dropped from the air into the war zone, with Bundeswehr aircraft also taking part. According to the Ministry of Defense, relief supplies were delivered by the Air Force for the first time in the morning. According to the Air Force, four tons of food were dropped over the north of the Gaza Strip from a height of around 1,000 meters from a C-130 “Hercules” transport plane.
The Bundeswehr had previously relocated two of the aircraft stationed in France to the region. Each machine can transport up to 18 tons of load. The aircraft are deployed from Jordan. With this operation, the Bundeswehr is taking part in the airlift for the Gaza Strip, which was initiated by the Arab country. Other partners such as the USA and France are also taking part in the initiative.