In view of the humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip, the USA is preparing to deliver aid by sea. A temporary port is to be created for this purpose. US President Biden wants to present the plan in a speech.
The USA wants to set up a temporary port in the Gaza Strip in order to be able to deliver aid by sea to the population of the Palestinian territory. This is reported by several media outlets, citing government representatives. The plan is to be presented by US President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address.
Accordingly, the US military, together with international partners, should build a pier on the coast where large ships can dock to deliver food, water, medicine and emergency shelter. The ship deliveries would offer the capacity of hundreds of additional truckloads.
Deliveries would initially come via Cyprus, made possible by the US military and a coalition of partners and allies. However, there are no plans for US soldiers to be stationed in the Gaza Strip for this purpose, it said. According to information from the Reuters news agency, Israel supports the plans to build the port and wants to coordinate them together with the USA.
Israel probably allows deliveries by sea
On Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel wanted to allow aid supplies to be imported into the Gaza Strip by sea for the first time since the war began five months ago. Israel has reached a corresponding agreement with unspecified international institutions, the report said.
A spokesman for EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen indicated plans for aid transport by ship on Wednesday. The EU top politician wanted to visit the port of Larnaka in Cyprus these days. From here, relief supplies could be brought to the Gaza Strip by ship. It is hoped that the humanitarian corridor can be opened very soon, it said.
Gaza’s population dependent on aid supplies
After five months of war – triggered by the massacre by the militant Islamist terrorist organization Hamas – the humanitarian situation of the people in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. Large parts of the coastal region have been completely destroyed. There is hardly any food, hardly any water and no regular medical care.
Aid organizations report that it has become almost impossible to distribute goods in most areas of the Gaza Strip because of difficulties in negotiating with the Israeli military, ongoing fighting and a breakdown in public order. Most recently, many Palestinians were killed and injured during a distribution of aid around a convoy.
In view of the humanitarian catastrophe, the USA began supplying the civilian population in the Gaza Strip with aid supplies from the air over the weekend. Jordan has been doing this for a long time.