Aid corridor ‘not a substitute for deliveries by land’

Cyprus’ humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza “can never be a substitute” for the delivery of aid by land routes, United Nations senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag said on Thursday.

“Land routes are the only way to bring in the bulk of supplies needed.”

Instead, she said, the aid corridor, dubbed the Amalthea plan by Cyprus’ government, can provide additional supplementary aid to the strip.

She added that in the last few months, she has discussed “detailed proposals” on the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza with the governments of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Cyprus, “to accelerate and streamline the delivery of goods into Gaza”.

In addition, she said, discussions have been aimed at “ensuring a constant pipeline of goods to be safely distributed across Gaza”.

On the matter of the temporary jetty being constructed off Gaza’s coast for the purpose of facilitating the delivery of greater quantities of aid by sea, she said preparations are “advancing”, and that the UN “has outlined the parameters under which it can play a meaningful role”.

In addition, she said her office has “proposed a multi-donor funding mechanism” for the Amalthea plan. “It is providing secretariat support to the maritime corridor to ensure full coordination with operations on the ground in Gaza.”

She added that this has involved the deployment of UN monitors to Cyprus under the provisions allowed by Security Council resolution 2720.

However, despite the “advancing” of the jetty’s preparation, concerns have been raised regarding its eventual placement off the coast of Gaza.

British newspaper The Guardian reported on Wednesday that the jetty’s placement may be too far south to help alleviate the “very high” risk of famine in the northern part of the strip.

The north of Gaza, including Gaza City, has been effectively cut off from the rest of the strip by a military road constructed by the Israeli Defence Force which connects Israel with Gaza’s coast, known as the Netzarim corridor.

As such, if the jetty is placed south of the Netzarim corridor, any aid sent towards Gaza City and the rest of the north of the strip will still have to pass through an IDF checkpoint. This would arguably defeat the point of shipping the aid directly to Gaza.

In addition, The Guardian said it had been informed that some view the jetty’s placement further south as a potential “smokescreen” which would allow Israel to close the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossing points and conduct a full-scale attack on the city of Rafah.

Over a million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, though it has been widely reported that the IDF wishes for them to move out so they can attack the city. However, with most of the rest of Gaza having been flattened, it is not yet clear where they expect them to move.

The Guardian said a United Nations official had told them one of the “key arguments” for constructing a jetty was “to put it further north so that suppliers could come in more directly to the north”.

Despite the questions being raised, the United States agency for international development (USAid) insisted that the maritime corridor is “proceeding on schedule”.

“All the necessary vessels are in the Mediterranean region and standing by,” a spokesperson said.

This is not entirely true, given that earlier this month it had been suggested that the jetty would be finished by April 20.