TRANSCRIPT
[[Sound of ocean - fade up and under]]
From the port city of Larnaca [larrr-nucka]] in Cyprus, a Spanish ship - owned by charity Open Arms - set sail towing a barge with 200 tonnes of food supplies, including rice, flour, beans, canned tuna.
It is expected to cover the 400 kilometres to Gaza within three days, arriving over the weekend [[16-17 March]].
Juan Camilo Jimenez [[Huan He-men-nez]] works with United States-based charity World Central Kitchen, which has organised the mission, which was has been funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates.
He says there is a clear goal.
"So basically, the objective is to bring aid to Gaza via sea. We as World Central Kitchen have been doing this in the last months via truck, via airdrops and now we are opening this maritime corridor with this first trip as we expect (there) to be more trips coming to this. And basically what we are doing is bringing aid to Gaza in another way that is via sea."
Israel controls Gaza’s coastline and all but one land crossing into the enclave.
Mr Jimenez says there have been a number of hurdles to overcome.
"It's a complex and historic mission. What we are doing right now as World Central Kitchen and Open Arms is historic, it is the first time it is happening in many years. And that means that we are working with different actors, different governments, different entities to make this possible and of course it has challenges, logistical challenges from like securing the aid to make the transportation, to plan the weather of course. Everything is weather-dependent so we are working in a very complicated weather conditions in the Mediterranean Sea. So of course challenges like that are happening and we are dealing with them, but at the same time we fix them."
A quarter of the more than two million people living in Gaza are one step away from famine, according to United Nations officials.
They say the trickle of aid that is being delivered via trucks is barely scratching the surface of daily needs.
The desperation has given rise to aid trucks being shot at, looted and overwhelmed by hungry people.
[[Mr]] Hussein Atallah is now in Rafah after fleeing from north of Gaza City.
He says there is anger that food aid has been blocked from arriving in Gaza, but he is not sure whether the maritime route is the solution.
(Arabic then translated into English): "As for this port - this is all nonsense. We have the Egypt crossing, we have the Kerem Shalom crossing, we have Erez crossing - and they can open dozens of crossings. Also, the border between us and Egypt is 15 kilometres long. So why use the port?"
Also displaced from the north and residing in Rafah, [[Ms]] Sulaf Awadallah says her desire is simply to return home.
(Arabic then translated into English): "We heard about this ship, which will come and bring food supplies. It will not solve our affairs, and it will not be able to solve the crisis of this region alone. We do not want food aid - or anything else. We want to return to our homes. Help us return to the north and let’s see a ceasefire. That is what we want."
Gaza has no functioning port, so the World Central Kitchen is building a jetty - used only those materials and equipment already in Gaza - to receive the aid.
The aid would be distributed via World Central Kitchen’s existing network in Gaza, which includes more than 60 local kitchens and several warehouses, with more being built, Andrés said.
Separately, the U-S military says it plans to build a floating dock off the Gaza coast within two months.
The temporary pier would allow large ships to deliver food, water and medicine.
The U-N's World Food Program says the number of trucks entering Gaza daily is 20 per cent of what it was before October the 7th.
The agency has only just resumed [[early Tue 12 March]] food truck deliveries after a three-week pause over safety concerns.
Israel denies limiting the flow of aid into Gaza, blaming the U-N for failing to distribute supplies - a claim which the U-N vehemently denies.
U-N spokesman Stéphane Dujarric says the maritime corridor from Cyprus is very welcome, but it does not replace the need for delivery by land.
"For aid delivery at scale, there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza. The land routes from Egypt, Rafah in particular, and Jordan also remain essential to the overall humanitarian effort."
