Cyprus aid now arriving in Gaza via Ashdod

Humanitarian aid sent from Cyprus towards Gaza will dock at the Israeli port Ashdod when the temporary jetty constructed to facilitate the delivery of aid directly into Gaza from the sea is permanently removed in the next few days, foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, he said the port of Ashdod has been used alongside the jetty throughout the jetty’s two-month lifespan, having previously been used as a port of reception for aid before the jetty had been constructed.

With this in mind, he said the Cypriot government will now be working together with the Israeli government and other allies to ensure more aid arrives in Gaza via Ashdod.

Aid arriving at Ashdod travels into northern Gaza by land, crossing from Israel into the strip via the Erez crossing point.

In addition to Ashdod, Gotsis said the government and other partners in the region are looking for “other options” for how aid can be transported into Gaza, ideally by direct means.

“The jetty was a direct means of getting aid into Gaza, and to replace it, we would like to find another direct means. We are working with the United States, the European Union, and our other partners to find such a means,” he said.

He added that in any case and even without the jetty, “we are going to carry on”.

“We are going to carry on collecting aid here and sending it on to Gaza. We remain in contact with organisations on the ground, such as the Food for Gaza initiative and the World Food Programme, and others. The international community, including us, is committed to continuing this effort.”

He was also keen to stress that the jetty, despite its troubles, had not been a pointless endeavour, pointing out that 15,000 pallets of humanitarian aid entered Gaza via the jetty, carrying more than 8,600 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

“This is an important amount for the people of Gaza,” he said.

News broke on Wednesday that the jetty would be permanently removed. It will first be taken from its current location in Ashdod and reattached, with the aim of transferring the aid currently waiting off the coast of Gaza and at the Larnaca port into the secure area, before being dismantled and taken away permanently.

The jetty has only been usable for a total of 12 days since first being put into place on May 17 – 54 days ago.

In addition, the WFP had suspended their operations related to the jetty in June following an Israeli military operation in the area which reportedly killed over 200 Palestinians.

WFP executive director Cindy McCain had said at the time that two of the WFP’s warehouses nearby had been “rocketed” by Israeli forces, and that she was “concerned about the safety of our people”.

Spokeswoman Abeer Etefa was clear on Monday that the WFP’s stance had not changed in the intervening three weeks, explaining to the Cyprus Mail that the organisation had engaged in an “exceptional one-off operation” in the last few days to remove the remaining aid from the secure area and into Gaza proper.

“The supplies were cleared from the beach and there is nothing new coming in. It was all cleared out, and has now gone for distribution,” she said.

She added that the WFP’s position on the jetty was that “if more supplies come in [via the jetty], we will not pick them up.”