Within the next 24 hours, the Spanish ship, Open Arms, is expected to set sail for Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians who are at risk of starvation, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulidis, said.

“Let me inform you that in the next twenty-four hours the ship will depart from Larnaca, I can’t say the exact time for security reasonsyou understand”, said President Christodoulidis.

The ship is scheduled to depart from Cyprus, the EU’s closest country to Gaza, and is set to use a new shipping route.

With no port operation, as well as shallow waters, it makes its task difficult as it is not yet clear where it will dock when it reaches Gaza. The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s population is on the brink of starvation and children are dying of starvation.

The ship, where is expected to arrive in Gaza in the coming daysbelongs to the Spanish charity of the same name Open Arms.

It will tow a barge loaded with 200 tons of food provided by the American charity World Central Kitchen, Open Arms founder Oscar Camps told The Associated Press.

The ship is expected to depart from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus in the next few hours and will take approx two to three days to reach an undisclosed location off the coast of Gaza, Camps told the news agency.

He added that the last mile of the journey, which it is about 216 nautical miles in totalwill be “the most complicated business,” but added that he was “not at all concerned with security.”

At the destination point, a team from World Central Kitchen built a jetty to receive the aid, he said. The group has 60 kitchens across Gaza where it will be able to distribute the food.

“What initially seemed like an insurmountable challenge is now on the verge of being realized,” he writes in a post on Open Arms’ X account.

“Our tugboat is ready to sail immediately, loaded with tons of food, water and vital supplies for Palestinian civilians.”

The World Central Kitchen he said he had been preparing for the trip for weeks, waiting for the shipping route to open.

Gauze

The sea corridor was announced by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday while in Cyprus and comes a day after President Joe Biden announced that the US plans to build a temporary floating jetty on the Gaza coastline.

US builds 500-meter floating jetty for humanitarian aid in Gaza

According to the Washington Post, the floating jetty that the US military will build to deliver aid to Gaza will allow the delivery of 2 million meals daily, .

According to the same publication, the construction will take up to two months and will require 1,000 US troops to remain in the open, officials say.

In particular, the US military expects the floating jetty, to be built off the Gaza coastline in the coming weeks, will allow the delivery of 2 million meals a day to Palestinians, the Pentagon said on Friday, outlining its plan to deal with worsening humanitarian crisis there without deploying US personnel directly to the war zone.

Construction of the offshore jetty and the runway connecting it to land will take up to 60 days and require about 1,000 US troops, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Israel’s deep-water port of Ashdod is less than 25 miles from Gaza, but Israeli officials have refused to open its northern border crossing. The Egyptian port of El Arish, just south of Gaza, has been a key arrival point for aid. But all shipments must go through a laborious process of being loaded onto trucks that must then be inspected at an area controlled by Israeli forces, unloaded and reloaded to then join a convoy of vehicles waiting to enter Palestinian territory .

US troops, including the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade based in Virginia, will join the effort. The operation will involve the construction of a floating jetty at sea that will allow ships to deliver aid, which will then be loaded onto Navy support ships and unloaded on a floating path. The two-lane walkway, approximately 1,800 feet long, will lead to a point on land and be picked up and secured on the ground by non-US personnel. Trucks will then have access to the runway to pick up and deliver aid.

In the next 24 hours, a ship with humanitarian aid leaves Larnaca for Gaza

In the next twenty-four hours, the ship will depart from Larnaca for the implementation of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said this evening the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulidis.

Asked if there is anything new in relation to the humanitarian corridor and the “Amalthia” project, President Christodoulidis expressed his satisfaction first and foremost for the fact that an initiative that started in October, with persistence, is receiving this international recognition. He noted that “we had a very specific plan that I presented at the conference that took place in Paris.”

“I would like to inform you that in the next twenty-four hours the ship will depart from Larnaca, I cannot say the specific time for security reasons, you understand,” said President Christodoulidis, noting that “on the one hand, we are in constant contact with the states that supported this the initiative – you have also seen the relevant announcement – at the same time I am happy because after yesterday’s press conference with the President of the European Commission, we are receiving phone calls from heads of state or government or Foreign Ministers to express to us their desire to participate in this initiative, an initiative that is done for humanitarian purposes”.