Ship towing barge full of food arrived today off Gaza, according to eyewitnesses, in a test of a new route of aid by sea from Cyprus to the devastated Palestinian enclave where the specter of famine looms after five months of Israel’s military campaign.

The ship, which has been arranged by the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity, transports almost 200 tons of aid to be distributed via a dock being prepared in Gaza, with a second ship expected to depart soon.

Few details are known about how the delivery and distribution of aid will work once the ship is ready to unload in Gaza, with UN aid agencies describing huge obstacles to getting supplies to those who need them. they need.

If the new sea route proves successful, it could help ease the famine crisis affecting Gaza, where much of the population faces malnutrition and hospitals in the worst-hit northern areas report children dying of starvation.

But the flow of aid by sea and airdrops will not be enough to offset the difficulties of moving supplies overland, aid agencies have repeatedly said.

Aid by land routes enters — by the dropper — from Egypt at the Rafah border crossing, after being inspected by the Israeli military. Its quantity is apparently not enough to meet the needs of the population (2.4 million), hence the calls to open other passages, for food to reach the north, and also initiatives such as airdrops of food parcels.

“After the war started and people were displaced to the south, we had not received any help” and “we have been wandering around since early in the morning hoping that a plane will drop (food) with parachutes,” displaced Mohlis al-Masri told AFP. , with a sack of flour on his shoulders in Beit Lahia.

The whole world is “hungry and exhausted”, they are hunting to find something “for their children”, he added, and there is no shortage of skirmishes.