The first ship towing a barge of humanitarian aid to Gaza has begun unloading supplies onto the shore.<\/p>\n
The Spanish ship Open Arms left Cyprus on Tuesday with 200 tonnes of food desperately needed for Gaza, which the UN says is on the brink of famine.<\/p>\n
A temporary jetty was built to get the food to shore, but bad weather reportedly slowed down the process.<\/p>\n
It marks the start of a trial to see if sea deliveries are effective, after air and land deliveries proved difficult.<\/p>\n
World Central Kitchen (WCK), which supplied the food, carried out the mission in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to deliver the barge’s cargo of rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and canned proteins.<\/p>\n
Gaza has no functioning port, so a jetty stemming from the shoreline was built by WCK’s team. A spokesperson for the group, Linda Roth, confirmed the barge was “connected now to the jetty” and being unloaded.<\/p>\n
How the food will be distributed in Gaza remains unclear.<\/p>\n