The fate of the 1,200 tonnes of aid sent from Cyprus to Gaza last week remains unclear, with satellite data showing the ship it is onboard as of 11am on Wednesday still located off the coast of the Israeli town of Ashdod and not inside the town’s port.

The Panamanian-flagged Henke had first been expected to dock and unload its cargo last Wednesday, before that estimate was later revised to Sunday or Monday.

At the time, presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos told the Cyprus Mail that there was “no evidence of any artificial holdup in the transfer of aid”, while foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis had said there was “no problem” regarding the transfer of aid.

Now, however, it remains unclear whether the ship has unloaded its cargo, and if it has, why it now remains stationary off the coast of Ashdod, or whether it has not yet been granted access to the port, and if not, why not.

Were the aid to arrive in Ashdod, it would then travel overland to Gaza through the Erez crossing point.

The Cyprus Mail made repeated attempts to contact the government over the matter but received no response.

Last week, Papadopoulos had told CyBC radio that the government was “monitoring the situation” and that it was “aware of the difficulties” regarding the transfer of aid to Gaza.

He added that it expects that “any problems which exist will be overcome” and that the aid will reach the people of Gaza.

“We collected the material from various donors, and we contributed, we created the mechanisms, we sent the mission. The facts on the ground, as they develop both inside Gaza and outside of Gaza, as you know, are generally changeable. The issue of security is a complex one, and the safety of the people who are delivering the aid comes first,” he said.

In Gaza itself, the situation continues to deteriorate, with an Israeli military strike on a hospital having killed at least 20 people, including journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, and Al Jazeera, among other outlets.

The United Nations has demanded that Israel’s investigations into that and similar incidents yield results, with human rights spokesman Thameen Al-Keetan describing the strike as “a shock” and “unacceptable”.

The unclear picture in Ashdod comes following a turbulent history for the Amalthea plan, the name given to Cyprus’ humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza.

Sigrid Kaag, then UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, and now the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said last year that the Amalthea project could “never be a substitute” for aid deliveries made by land.

Previously, aid had also arrived in Gaza from Cyprus via a temporary jetty attached to the coast of Gaza, which was built and financed by the United States government of the day, though this also faced sundry problems.

The jetty was installed in May last year, but was only operable for 12 days before being permanently removed two months later.

It had broken apart during high winds, with four US army vessels which were holding it in place being washed up on a beach near Ashkelon, an Israeli town located between the Ashdod and Gaza.

It was taken to Ashdod for repairs before being reattached in early June, but was then removed on two further occasions as officials feared that conditions would lead to it breaking apart again.

In addition to its structural difficulties, the jetty was also impacted by problems regarding delivery after the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in June last year suspended its operations related to the jetty following an Israeli military operation in the area which reportedly killed over 200 Palestinians.

Prior to that, in April last year, seven aid workers transporting over land humanitarian aid which had been sent from Cyprus were killed in three simultaneous Israeli airstrikes.