Open Arms, a Spanish-flagged ship carrying 200 tons of food and humanitarian aid destined for Gaza, was poised to set sail this week from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus.

That is the EU country closest to the Gaza Strip. Open Arms is a vessel owned by the Spanish charity Open Arms and the food was provided by the US Charity World Central.

The vessel was awaiting approval by Israeli authorities before it set sail, with the endeavour being undertaken under the auspices of the EU.

The President of the EU Commision Ursula von Der Leyen this week announced the establishment of a maritime corridor whose purpose is to convey humanitarian aid to the embattled civilian Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, after the UN designated the area as entering into famine as a result of the five-month siege of Gaza which started last October with the Israeli army’s incursion.

The United States and the EU have amped up their rhetoric on the humanitarian plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza, but continue to provide Israel and its army with unequivocal political support.

During his State of the Union address on 7 March, US President Joe Biden announced that his country would build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, whose purpose would be to serve as a port conveying humanitarian aid by sea. The aid would be shipped through the maritime route from Larnaca. Construction of the pier will take 60 days, and it can ultimately deliver some two million meals a day.

Involved in the endeavour along with the US, the EU and Cyprus are the UAE and the UN.

The logistics related to the clearance, unloading delivery and distribution of goods have not yet been announced. But the delivery of aid into Gaza is already beset by massive obstacles, and the breakdown of  infrastructure and policing efforts have resulted in its delivery being a chaotic process often beset by lootings and the diversion of goods to the black market as a result; this, in addition to periodic, often fatal shootings by the IOF into desperate crowds clamouring around aid convoys.

Even well-intentioned air-dropping of aid during a US-led initiative has led to civilian deaths caused by the impact of parcels whose parachutes failed to open as they were dropped from flying aeroplanes.

An Israeli proposal to have armed personnel from among Gaza’s civilians who are not affiliated with Hamas to supervise the distribution of aid was rejected by the Palestinian Authority.

In northern Gaza, which is now virtually cut off from the southern part of the territory, some 700,000 civilians are battling famine and malnutrition, with rising mortality rates among the most vulnerable groups: children, many of them newborn infants, women, and the elderly.

This week the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the deaths of ten children aged 25 days to eight years at the Kamal Udwan Hospital, in addition to 30 adults who it said all died from lack of food.

The United Nations Food Program (UNFPA) has announced that it is no longer able to operate or deliver assistance in the north of Gaza, which is virtually cut off from the rest of the territory.

Once the off-shore pier constructed by the US is completed, with the maritime route functioning, it will be the only connection between northern Gaza and the outside world.

The existence of a port will enable the entry of aid even if it is belated, but it also raises fears that this could ultimately become an exodus point out of Gaza for embattled Palestinians, a scenario which analysts say could play into Israel’s plans to evacuate Gaza, and specifically the north.

David Cameron, the foreign secretary of one of Israel’s staunchest allies, the UK, has commented on the US plan to establish a new maritime port off the Gaza coast by saying that the Israeli port of Ashdod already exists, and can serve as a viable and immediately available port of entry for aid which has all the needed infrastructure and logistics already in place.

But ultimately the land route is the shortest, quickest, least costly and most effective way to deliver aid into Gaza, as has been stressed time and again by humanitarian agencies working there on the ground.

This would be primarily through the Rafah border crossing and the Kerem bin Salem border, both accessed through Egypt.

There is also potentially the Erez crossing in the north, though its use is far-fetched, given Israel’s policies: it is the only opening existing there, and it would have opened up a venue of aid for the embattled Palestinians.

The choice of a maritime route is costly and time-consuming. It might deliver much needed humanitarian assistance, but when it is already too late.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 March, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly