EU will open sea corridor to send aid from Cyprus to Gaza amid famine fears

Subject: IR

Section: Places in news

Context:

The EU has announced the imminent opening of a sea corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, aiming to prevent a famine that has already begun to claim lives.

Amalthea Initiative:

Started under the leadership of Cyprus.
Aim: To establish a mechanism for securely shipping aid from Cyprus to Gaza via sea.
The international backing for this corridor includes a coalition of countries and aims to tackle the complex logistics of delivering aid directly to Gaza by sea.
This corridor is seen as a vital step in delivering humanitarian aid directly to Gaza, about 210 nautical miles away from Cyprus.
The initiative‘s launch is marked by a pilot delivery conducted by the Spanish search and rescue group Open Arms, with food supplied by World Central Kitchen.
While the EU has detailed the shipments’ direct route to Gaza, specifics on landing points, unloading, and food distribution remain unclear.

The U.S. initiative:

This initiative appears separate from a US plan announced by President Joe Biden to construct a floating dock near Gaza for aid delivery, a plan that has faced criticism from aid workers for its feasibility and timeline.
Amidst this effort, the UK has urged Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza.
This initiative comes as the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens, with 30,000 Palestinians reported dead since the start of the war, and parts of Gaza, especially the north, facing famine conditions.

Cyprus:

It is an island country located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea,north of the Sinai Peninsula, south of the Anatolian Peninsula, and west of the Levant.
It is geographically a part of West Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeast European.
Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean.
It is located east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria.
Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. The northeast portion of the island is de facto governed by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Israel- Hamas conflict through map:

Hamas strike on Israel	Israel’s strike on Hamas and Gaza