RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail for Gaza on Tuesday in a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the five-month-old Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
The push to get food in by sea -- along with a recent campaign of airdrops into isolated northern Gaza -- highlighted the international community's frustration with the growing humanitarian crisis and its inability to get aid in by road.
The food on the aid ship was collected by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, and is being transported by the Spanish aid group Open Arms. The ship departed from the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus and is expected to arrive in Gaza in two to three days.
The United States has separately announced plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza in order to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational. President Joe Biden's administration has provided crucial military aid for Israel while urging it to facilitate more humanitarian access.
STARVING CIVILIANS
The war, triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians and driven most of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza's population is starving, according to the United Nations, because they cannot find enough food or afford it at vastly inflated prices.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive into the strip's southern city of Rafah, where half of Gaza's population has sought refuge, and to keep fighting until Hamas has been dismantled and all the captives it is holding have been returned.
Aid groups say it is nearly impossible to deliver aid in much of Gaza because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order after the Hamas-run police force largely vanished from the streets.
Conditions are especially dire in northern Gaza, which has suffered widespread devastation and has been largely cut off by Israeli forces since October. Up to 300,000 Palestinians are believed to have remained there despite Israeli evacuation orders, with many reduced to eating animal feed in recent weeks.
The World Food Program delivered food into northern Gaza on Tuesday evening for the first time since Feb. 20, according to the United Nations. Six humanitarian aid trucks brought assistance, coordinated by the Israeli military, which called it a pilot program to determine if additional food can be brought overland into the north. The military said the aid was checked at Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing near Egypt and brought into Gaza at the 96th gate crossing, which is close to Kibbutz Be'eri.
MULTINATIONAL SUPPORT
The planned sea route has the support of the European Union, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and others. The U.S. and other countries have also launched airdrops, but such efforts are costly and unlikely to meet the mounting needs.
The United Nations welcomed the inauguration of the sea route but reiterated that transporting aid by land is the best way to get the most aid into Gaza.
The Open Arms ship is towing a barge loaded with food. Once it nears Gaza, two smaller vessels will tow the barge to a jetty being built by World Central Kitchen, which operates 65 kitchens across the territory, the group said. It plans to distribute the food in the north.
"The best security is to have enough food in Gaza," Andres said. "We want to make sure nothing happens to anybody."
Israel, which controls Gaza's coastline and all but one of its land crossings, says it supports efforts to deliver aid by sea and will inspect all cargo shipments.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was the first time a ship had been authorized to deliver aid directly to Gaza since 2005 and that the EU would work with "smaller ships" until the U.S. completes work on its floating port.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said during a visit to Beirut that there is a "mechanism" in place for larger shipments, with the goal of "a more systematic exercise with increased volumes."
Information for this article was contributed by Tia Goldenberg, Raf Casert and Abby Sewell of The Associated Press.