Gaza aid reaches shore in first sea delivery

The Spanish ship Open Arms left Cyprus on Tuesday with 200 tonnes of food desperately needed for Gaza, which the UN says is on the brink of famine. Videos posted online show a crane moving crates from the barge to lorries waiting on a purpose-built jetty. It marks the start of a trial to see if sea deliveries are effective, after air and land deliveries proved difficult. "We did it!" he wrote, adding that this was a test to see if they could bring even more aid in the next shipment - up to "thousands of tons a week". In a statement, Israel said the Open Arms vessel and its cargo were inspected in Cyprus, and that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops had been deployed to secure the shoreline.   World Central Kitchen (WCK), which supplied the food, carried out the mission in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to deliver the barge's cargo of rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and canned proteins.

deliveries. The White House says it could see two million meals a day enter Gaza, but while a military ship is en route with equipment on board to build the dock, questions remain about the logistics of the plan.

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, most effective way to get aid into the territory is by road, but aid agencies say Israeli restrictions mean a fraction of what is needed is getting in.