TEL AVIV — A private aid ship that has been chugging at 3 mph across the Mediterranean Sea is set to arrive in Gaza on Friday, carrying the first nautical delivery for hungry Palestinians while tons of food and supplies sit on idling trucks in Egypt, waiting for permission to enter the besieged enclave.
The Open Arms, named after the Spanish charity that’s transporting the supplies, set sail Tuesday on the roughly 200-mile voyage from the Larnaca port in Cyprus. It’s towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein to the enclave, where five months of war have left around a quarter of its 2.3 million residents “one step away” from famine, according to the United Nations.
Already, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has reported more than two dozen deaths caused by malnutrition and dehydration, with the U.N. noting that most of the reported victims were children.
The food was collected by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, which operates a network of around 60 kitchens across the Gaza Strip.
The nongovernmental organization said in a statement Tuesday that it was building a jetty from destroyed rubble to receive the aid in the center of Gaza. It said it would not be disclosing details about the ship’s journey and expected arrival because of security concerns.
“Our goal is to establish a maritime highway of boats and barges stocked with millions of meals continuously headed towards Gaza,” Andrés and the NGO’s CEO, Erin Gore, said in the statement.
The push to open the nautical route — as well as recent aid airdrops into northern Gaza — comes amid increasing international frustration about the growing humanitarian crisis in the enclave and the inability to get enough aid in by road.
The U.S. and many of its international partners have been pushing to speed up the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. But Israel has tightly controlled the entry of aid, which has been delivered by trucks through the country’s Kerem Shalom border crossing or the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Aid groups have said their efforts have been hampered because of the difficulty coordinating with the Israeli military, as well as ongoing fighting and the breakdown of public order, which have led to the looting of several convoys. As a result, only a small fraction of what is needed has entered the enclave, the agencies have said.
The Israel Defense Forces said the aid ship delivery was being carried out “in coordination with Israeli security and civilian authorities, in accordance with the directive of the government of Israel and at the request of the U.S. government.”
It said all the equipment on the ship underwent a comprehensive security check and was accompanied by Israeli officials.
IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, separately suggested to reporters Wednesday that more routes could open up and that Israel was “trying to flood the area” with aid.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said in a statement that at least one of its staff members was killed and 22 others were injured in an Israeli strike on one of its food distribution centers in southern Gaza. The IDF acknowledged the strike but said in a statement that it had killed Muhammad Abu Hasna, a Hamas commander who it said was taking aid and giving it to the militant group.
On Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 21 people were killed and dozens of others were injured while waiting for the expected arrival of aid. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the situation on the ground.
The IDF said reports that its forces attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid distribution point were “false.” It said it continued to assess the incident.
Last month, more than 100 people were killed trying to reach an aid convoy, according to the Health Ministry. The Israeli military said the majority were trampled or run over, but witnesses said Israeli soldiers killed civilians.
Five people were also killed last week by aid packages dropped from aircraft into Gaza, according to the enclave’s civil defense.
Facing growing political pressure at home and abroad to do more to help Palestinians, even as the U.S. continues to supply Israel with military hardware, President Joe Biden announced last week that the U.S. military will construct a temporary port in Gaza to get more humanitarian aid into the territory by sea.
But that was criticized by aid groups, including Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, whose executive director, Avril Benoît, said last week that the U.S. “should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.”
Ciaran Donnelly, the vice president of crisis response at the International Rescue Committee, said the port was a “distraction” and called on the Biden administration to find “alternative solutions in aid delivery.”
Palestinians in Gaza reliant on incoming aid have also condemned the move.
Zohir Donna, who was displaced from the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City to Rafah, told an NBC News crew on the ground that it would be a “shame” to see a temporary port built when the Rafah crossing is “only five minutes from where we are.”
“Where are the goods piled up in the land port between Gaza and the Arab Republic of Egypt?” he said. “Residents here are in dire need and poverty.”
“The news about building this seaport is a way to reduce public, Arabic and international pressure towards Biden’s administration and Netanyahu’s government,” Donna said.
Mostafa Gamal Elian, a resident of Rafah, said: “The Rafah crossing should be open, and the aid should pass through it. We don’t want to have a vague seaport.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After having met with partners on the project, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that he wanted to emphasize that the maritime corridor was meant to be a “complement to, not a substitute for, other ways of getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
He said that “overland routes remain the most critical way to get assistance in and then to people who need it” but that the effort would “help close the gap.”
In the meantime, World Central Kitchen said it had 500 more tons of aid ready to depart from Cyprus to Gaza, where health officials say more than 31,000 people have been killed since Oct. 7.
Israeli military officials said at least 245 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began. Officials in the country said around 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks and around 240 others were taken hostage. Officials say 134 remain in Gaza after dozens were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in late November, although a number of them are dead.
