Dinghies were used to push food aid barges from open arms vessels to private jetties.
The first ship towing a barge loaded with humanitarian supplies for Gaza has offloaded the supplies onto the coast.
The Spanish ship Open Arms left Cyprus on Tuesday with 200 tonnes of desperately needed food for Gaza, which the United Nations says is on the brink of starvation.
A video posted online shows a crane moving crates from a barge to a truck waiting at a private pier.
This marks the start of a trial to see if sea delivery is effective after air and land delivery proved difficult.
Food supplier World Central Kitchen (WCK) worked with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to deliver barge loads of rice, flour, pulses, canned vegetables and canned protein. did.
Gaza does not have a functioning port, so WCK's team built a pier extending from the coastline. It is still unclear how food will be distributed in Gaza.
Jose Andres, founder of WCK and famous chef, I wrote to X (Former Twitter) reported that all food aid from the barge was loaded onto 12 trucks.
“We did it!” He added that this was a test to see if the next shipment could carry even more aid (up to “thousands of tons a week”).
Israel said in a statement that the Open Arms ship and its cargo were inspected in Cyprus, and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops were sent to secure the coastline.
Gaza relief supplies unloaded from barge
Teams worked through the night to deliver aid to land. The delivery had been highly anticipated since the ship left Larnaca port on Tuesday.
If this maritime mission is deemed a success, other aid vessels are likely to follow suit as part of an international effort to obtain more aid for Gaza. Ships will use the newly opened route to travel directly to the region.
Separately, the United States plans to build its own floating docks off its coast to enhance maritime transport. The White House has said 2 million meals a day could enter Gaza, but questions remain about the logistics of the plan, although warships are sailing with equipment to build the pier. There is.
Military operations and the breakdown of social order have severely hampered aid distribution, while Gaza's own food production has been severely affected, with farms, bakeries, and factories destroyed or inaccessible. .
The quickest and most effective way to get aid into the territory is by land, but aid agencies say Israeli restrictions mean some of the needed aid is being diverted from reaching aid agencies.
The World Food Program had to temporarily suspend ground transportation after its convoy came under fire and looting. And last week, the drop from the sky turned deadly, with five people reportedly killed after their parachutes failed and they were affected by the aid package.
Israel vehemently denies that it is responsible for Gaza's food shortages, as it allows aid to flow through two crossing points in the south. Rather, they blame aid agencies for logistical failures.
Negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza continue. On Friday, Israel rejected Hamas' latest proposal.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages. More than 31,400 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.
