The first ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, carrying humanitarian aid from the Cyprus humanitarian corridor, arrived in Gaza last night and unloaded 200 tons of food on a floating dock, as part of the effort to prevent the residents from starving.

“Despite the darkness and the difficulties, the work does not stop in Gaza to unload the 200 tons of WCK food (…) We hope that this corridor we are opening today will be a road parallel to the land ones to relieve hunger and plight of the people of Gaza,” wrote Open Arms in X.

“WKC unloads nearly 200 tonnes of rice, flour, protein and more, which arrived by sea. At the same time as this cargo is being unloaded, our second ship is preparing to leave Cyprus with hundreds of tons of additional food,” the American NGO said with satisfaction via X (the former Twitter).

Although the Open Arms ship was able to reach the Gaza Strip, where there is no cargo port, to unload, it underwent a “full security check” beforehand, said the Israeli military, which has been under strict lockdown since October 9. siege the enclave.

“I want (help) for my children. I want them to live and not starve to death. They eat nothing but weeds, there is no bread either — there is no bread, there is nothing to eat in Gaza. It is the month of Ramadan and there is nothing,” said Abu Isa Ibrahim Filfil, a Palestinian who went to watch the ship’s arrival.

In addition to the shelling and fighting, the UN fears widespread famine in the besieged Palestinian enclave, especially in the north, where access is very difficult. Aid arriving by land routes enters the Gaza Strip after being inspected by Israel mainly in the south, at Rafah, but its quantity is completely insufficient to meet the needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants.

Hence the race against time to distribute more aid to the northern Gaza Strip with airdrops and the new sea corridor from Cyprus.