A second World Central Kitchen ship sailed from Cyprus to Gaza on Saturday, carrying much-needed food for Palestinians at immediate risk of starvation.
The ship, named Jennifer, was carrying nearly 400 tons of non-perishable and ready-to-eat products akin to rice, pasta, flour, canned vegetables and proteins – twice the quantity delivered in World Central Kitchen’s first shipment to Gaza in mid-March, it said the charity said in a press release. The UAE also provided a shipment of dates, which are sometimes eaten to interrupt the fast during Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. Just over per week stays until Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday marking the top of the summer holidays. This 12 months it’s scheduled to fall on or around April 9.
It was unclear when the second shipment would arrive, but the primary ship, called Open Arms, arrived in Gaza about 4 days after leaving Cyprus. Jennifer also carried two forklifts and a crane to unload the cargo.
Delivering aid by sea is one in every of the most recent international initiatives geared toward staving off the specter of famine within the Gaza Strip, where aid is restricted to tightly controlled border crossings.
When the primary ship arrived in Gaza, José Andrés, the Spanish-American chef who founded World Central Kitchen, said distribution efforts would begin in northern Gaza, where violence and lawlessness have hampered food distribution. It arrived at a newly built pier on the coast south of Gaza City, the primary ship in many years authorized to deliver aid to Gaza.
The United States also announced a plan to construct its own temporary floating pier to supply aid to Gaza, but construction could take weeks.
A recent report by the worldwide Phase Classification of Integrated Food Security initiative, the world’s authority on hunger and nutrition, found that food shortages brought on by the war have been so severe that the northern Gaza Strip could face famine at any time in the approaching months.
Hunger is defined when an area meets three criteria: at the very least 20 percent of households are extremely food insecure; at the very least 30 percent of kids suffer from acute malnutrition; and at the very least two adults or 4 children out of each 10,000 people die day by day from hunger or diseases related to malnutrition.
The technique of delivering aid to Gaza by land is long and complicated, with trucks facing delays and difficulties at every stage of the distribution process. Roads destroyed by Israeli bombardment of Gaza make it difficult for trucks to traverse northern Gaza; aid agencies akin to the World Food Program have suspended their deliveries to the country, citing security concerns.
The UN agency for the Palestinians, referred to as UNRWA, says Israel has prevented aid from flowing on the essential pace with its slow inspections. COGAT, the Israeli entity that oversees deliveries to Gaza, blames aid groups for not distributing aid quickly enough.
