Israel welcomes opening of maritime corridor for Gaza aid

Palestinians salvage items from a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Israel has said that it "welcomed" the inauguration of the maritime corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip aimed at boosting humanitarian aid to the embattled Palestinian enclave. "The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to Gaza," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lior Haiat said on Friday in a statement, without specifying the time frame for the arrival of the first shipment. Haiat noted that Israel will control the entry of aid into Gaza by "conducting security checks in accordance with Israeli standards".

During a visit to the Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that it is hopeful that the maritime corridor for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza would open this Sunday, according to a press release by the Cypriot Interior Ministry.

The EU Chief noted that an initial pilot operation will be launched on Friday for the maritime corridor initiated by Cyprus, the EU, the UAE, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, and the US. The delivery of aid to Gaza is critical as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave has been worsening since Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza. The Israeli offensive has so far killed more than 30,800 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

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