UK’s Cameron sinks Cyprus’ Gaza aid initiative

The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron appeared to have sunk Cyprus’ maritime humanitarian corridor ambitions, after he told the House of Lords “the best way to get aid into Gaza is through trucks.”

Taking questions over an Israel-Gaza ceasefire, he told MPs that supplying aid to Gaza via the beach is “an extremely difficult option”.

He stressed that Britain is “looking at every single possible way to get aid in”.

“There are maritime options and we had a ship leaving Cyprus and taking aid to Port Said in Egypt. The so-called over the beach options of trying to land aid in Gaza through the beach is extremely difficult for reasons of operational security and other issues of security.”

Cyprus in December announced the ‘launch’ of its maritime humanitarian corridor initiative to send aid to Gaza, but the ambition fell flat earlier this month after the RFA ship Lyme Bay was eventually not allowed to dock into Gaza.

After being out at sea for around two weeks, it eventually went to Port Said to transfer the aid to the Rafah crossing.

“The truth of this is the best way to get aid into Gaza is through trucks,” Cameron stressed.

He told MPs more aid needed to get into Gaza and he was counting the number of trucks allowed in every day. “Five hundred are needed and 150 are getting in.”