PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, March 8: An international effort gathered pace on Friday to get desperately needed humanitarian relief into Gaza by sea, in the latest bid to counter overland access restrictions blamed on Israel as it battles Hamas militants.
In the Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed hope a maritime corridor could open this Sunday, though crucial details of the planned operation remained unclear.
She said "an initial pilot operation" would be launched on Friday, and the United Arab Emirates had helped activate the corridor "by securing the first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza".
Her announcement came after US President Joe Biden, in his annual State of the Union address on Thursday, said the US military would establish a "temporary pier" off Gazas coast to bring in aid.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine in the long-blockaded Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli siege since the Hamas attack of October 7 triggered the war, now in its sixth month.
With relatively few aid trucks entering by land and convoys headed to Gazas north often blocked or looted, several countries including Israels top ally the United States have been parachuting food and other assistance.
But air or sea delivery is not the best way, and the "diversification of the supply routes via land" remains the optimal solution, said Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations aid coordinator for Gaza.
Biden, whose administration has been increasingly vocal about the wars consequences for civilians, delivered some of his strongest comments yet, as hopes dimmed for a new truce before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which could begin Sunday depending on the lunar calendar.
"To the leadership of Israel I say this -- humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip," Biden said.
Hamass unprecedented October attack on southern Israel resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has responded with a relentless offensive that the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said has killed at least 30,878 people, mostly women and children. Hamas militants took about 250 hostages, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died. —AFP
