A sustainable sea route from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip would take “months”, a UN official said. Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, reiterated that this approach would not change the delivery of humanitarian aid on the ground.
Discussions on the Cyprus initiative are scheduled for this week after an NGO boatload of aid, usually delivered by ten trucks, arrived in the Gaza Strip a few days ago.
“I don't see sea transport as an alternative to road,” said Jamie McGoldrick of the region. We need to “open more roads than establish a new port,” he insists.
Between loot and obstacles
After meeting with NGOs in the territory last week, Jamie McColdrick says he has identified “opportunities to identify improvements to improve security and supply of goods” in the Gaza Strip. Convoys are regularly looted due to the considerable malnutrition faced by the population. “A lot of aid is not reaching the most vulnerable,” the UN official adds.
He lamented that “massive quantities of critical humanitarian goods” are blocked in warehouses in Al-Arish and cannot be transported into the territory. The Jewish state believes that medical equipment can be used negatively, he adds. “There is nothing threatening about these stocks,” he insists.
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