WCK aid sets sail for Gaza
World Central Kitchen dispatched our first maritime shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza. After weeks of preparation, our team in Cyprus loaded almost 200 tons of food onto the Open Arms boat that will deliver the desperately-needed aid to Gaza. Once there, we will distribute the food to communities on the brink of famine. WCK has provided more than 35 million meals to displaced Palestinians since serving our first plates of food in the region.
We are working with the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, and the international community to open this maritime aid corridor so as many meals as possible reach Palestinians in need.
Alongside our partners in Gaza, we are constructing a jetty we will use to offload the aid before loading it onto trucks that will deliver the food. Our team has another 500 tons of aid in Cyprus ready to be loaded on future boats.
WCK and Open Arms set up operations in Larnaca, a port town in southern Cyprus. There, our Procurement and Logistics Team is sourcing, packing, and loading pallets of rice, flour, legumes, canned vegetables, and canned proteins that are on their way to war-torn Palestinian communities. “This is the next step to providing food aid into Gaza,” said John, WCK’s Middle East response co-lead who was on the ground in Cyprus. “People in northern Gaza are suffering and really need this food.”
Open Arms and the barge it is towing with almost 200 tons of aid preparing to set sail for Gaza.
The opening of the maritime aid corridor will allow us to reach many more people. However, the international community must continue to pursue all possible aid avenues, including the opening of more land crossings into all parts of Gaza.
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