In the aftermath of the shocking news of the aid workers’ deaths, much of the humanitarian consignment that had reached Gaza via the maritime corridor from Cyprus is now being returned to the island, we have learned.
“At least two-thirds of the assistance is on its way back,” Cyprus’s foreign minister spokesperson, Theodoros Gotsis, told the Guardian.
“Around 332 tonnes of aid left Cyprus on Saturday. Around 100 tonnes, about a third, were unloaded and delivered but after these tragic events the other two-thirds are being brought back.”
The aid, which had included basic non-perishable food supplies such as flour and pasta, had reached the besieged coastal strip on a flotilla of ships that had departed the Cypriot port of Larnaca two days earlier.
Of the four vessels that had plied the route, two were carrying vital food provisions and two equipment and personnel. The humanitarian assistance had been loaded on a transport ship, the Jennifer, and a barge towed by the Spanish-flagged Open Arms.
By the time Monday’s airstrike occurred, in which seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen died, only supplies from the barge had been offloaded at a makeshift jetty off the Gaza coast.
Gotsis said with the charity putting its humanitarian relief operation on pause, the cargo would probably remain in Cyprus until the completion of investigations into the tragedy. “Obviously we will have to wait now until the whole process of inquiry is carried out,” he said. “We have to wait and see if WCK resumes operations.”
The International organisation is now the only charity involved in overseeing the distribution of aid from the Mediterranean island.
With famine reportedly spreading at an alarming pace among Gaza’s 2.3 million strong Palestinian populace, the news of much-needed food being sent back from the territory has only exacerbated the unfolding tragedy in the enclave.
So the genocidal maniacs have got what they wanted.
