Relief to Gaza will be scaled up, Cyprus is key route: UAE

The United Arab Emirates is preparing to increase aid deliveries into Gaza, an envoy said on Friday, saying a sea corridor from Cyprus was essential alongside land and air access.

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UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh said a maritime route channelling pre-screened aid from the East Mediterranean island was a vital lifeline to the people of Gaza. The UAE has partnered with Cyprus in supplying large quantities of aid to the Palestinian enclave, devastated by a two-year war. “Maintaining multiple entry points into Gaza remains incredibly important,” Nusseibeh said after an inspection of aid accumulating at the port of Limassol in Cyprus.

“As this plan moves forward, access to Gaza by land, air and sea is going to remain critical,” she told reporters.

Some 22,000 tonnes of pre-screened aid has been dispatched from Cyprus under the so-called Amalthea Initiative launched last year. Some of it reached Gaza directly via a short-lived temporary pier set up by the US last year, while other shipments have been dispatched to the port of Ashdod in Israel.

Earlier, President Donald Trump said he expects a US-coordinated international stabilisation force to be on the ground in Gaza “very soon,” following two years of war in the territory between Israel and Hamas.