a ship belonging to the Spanish NGO Open
Arms is getting ready to leave for Gaza
via a new sea Corridor carrying
humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza
it'll depart from the port of lanica in
Cyprus where it's been loaded with food
European commission president Ursula
fond Delan says the EU will help
coordinate the relief effort alongside
the US United Arab Emirates and other
countries this follows President Biden's
announcement that the US military would
build a floating Pier off the Garen post
to facilitate Aid deliveries here's more
from the commission
president and today we are facing a
humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and we
stand by the innocent civilians in
Palestine and this is why Europe is
financing a major humanitarian Aid
effort for
Palestinians in Gaza and in the
region we're now very close to the
opening of the corridor hopefully this
SU Saturday this Sunday and I'm very
glad to see that an initial pilot
operation will be launched
today let's pick up some of those points
with Ahmed bam who's Regional media and
communication adviser for the Norwegian
Refugee Council he joins us from the
Jordanian Capital Aman welcome to DW uh
we just heard Ursula felion saying she
hopes this new Maritime Corridor could
open this weekend um do you think that
realistic good evening Phil thanks for
having me in terms of this being
realistic probably uh I mean we hope so
at least that you know any aid from any
any side of uh of the uh border comes in
to Gaza however the question is what
happened to the to the actual land roots
that we have have we given up on those
have we given up on convincing Israel to
allow more in and have we given up on
diplomacy as as a tool of bringing some
uh you know some relief to people who
are who are literally Starving in in
Gaza right now I mean this of course
this scheme is is welcome because people
are so desperate particularly in
Northern Gaza where you know we are
hearing reports of children dying of
malnutrition how however what we need to
see uh is is uh the uh reopening the
full reopen
of the of the land Crossings in Rafa and
Kum Shalom right um well perhaps you
could answer your own question uh do you
believe that we have given up on uh
reopening the land
Crossings I mean all this distraction we
hearing in the media all you know all
the this new promotion of of port and
Maritime routs and and you know uh this
corridor from from Cyprus does tell us
that looks like uh the uh ramping up of
AG Roots land routs which are the
fastest the most efficient and the most
affordable the the the least expensive
and the quickest it looks like we are
now looking at a scenario where you know
this has been politicized so politicized
that uh we're not able to you know bring
in just extra few hundred trucks a day
to to relieve the people so it looks
like more and more you know I mean it
looks like the diplomacy and politics is
now you know
interfering in the works of Aid and and
Aid uh Aid relief efforts and at the
same time you know we're looking at Rafa
which is the Zone where you know you you
have two Crossings uh one Rafa war in
shom that have been obstructed over the
the past few weeks so probably the
answer is I mean hope not but it looks
like yeah it looks like you know these
Alternatives it looks like they are
being floated as a substitute to land
rout and this is the real danger here
all right what is the danger if uh Aid
is coming in uh um via C and we also
have this American announcement of this
this temporary port in due course but if
Aid is coming in uh by sea so long as
the aid gets in why does it matter
whether it comes by sea or by
land it does matter because while we're
brainstorming how we going to bring this
in how we're going to construct where
are we going to construct the Ford how
long it's going to take there are people
who are starving at the moment and the
the danger is as I said in promoting
this as the you know um as the the Holy
Grail as the replacement of of AG roots
and you know of course if that if that
takes place there are questions about
inspections about who's going to who's
going to oversee the who's going to have
control over inspections is Israel going
to also interfere in in the shipments
that are coming in who is going to
actually uh you know unload offload
these boxes of the of the ship docks um
you know it's it's a whole catalog of
questions that we we have to ask all
while you know you know displace people
pregnant mothers children starve and
have to skip meals and you know we're
talking about Ramadan in the next few
days and that's another reminder that
people have been actually almost fasting
to to death here in Gaza so that's the
that's the danger we should not be
distracted from the solution which is
the land routes through Rafa through K
shell there are thousands of trucks that
could be could could be Crossing and
that's what needs to be encouraged given
us much to think about thank you for
joining us Ahmed Bam from the Norwegian
Refugee Council
thank
you Tanya Kramer in Jerusalem told us
more about the reaction from the Israeli
government well we got a short statement
now uh from the Israeli foreign uh
Ministry uh saying that they're
welcoming the decision to establish a
maritime Corridor that they will work
with all those organizing it and it said
that this initiative will allow more
humanitarian Aid uh coming uh into Gaza
but there one key Point Key point it
also stresses that this will be of
course done after uh Security checks
that are carried out according to
Israeli standards uh uh this has been uh
in the past a key point of contention
between uh the uh humanitarian actors
here and Israel because the uh
screenings and Security checks of all
the aid going into Gaza bya the land
Crossings um has been uh that has been a
really lengthy uh progress and it seems
it will not be much different also for
this Maritime
route Tanya Kramer let's talk to Mike
Martin he's a military analyst from the
war studies department at Kings College
London uh welcome back to DW Mike Phil
hi how involved is Israel likely to have
been in what looks like a unilateral us
decision uh well I think actually the
the security checks that your
correspondent cited some of those in
Cyprus are going to be carried out by a
team that includes Israeli government
officials so I think it's very unlikely
that the us would have launched this
initiative without first arranging that
that piece of choreography with Israel
so Israel is giving its support and
indeed being part of the the process of
opening this Corridor right and we heard
the European commission Chief hondel
Express and the hope that this Corridor
could open this weekend is that
realistic uh well I think I think
there's two things going on one is the
the the maritime port or the pier that
the us is going to be building and and
that won't be open for at least several
weeks if not a month um need to get the
equipment from the US and all the rest
of it and but the US seems to be the EU
seems to be talking about another
initiative where uh they are sending
ships but they need to dock somewhere
else so they either need to dock at an
Israeli port or at a port in Egypt and
other ships have left Cyprus over the
preceding months and have have taken
these routes so I think I think there's
two things going on right I mean this
isn't a question for you I suppose but
what one wonders if they can do this now
with no Port why this wasn't done months
ago well indeed
I know that that's not really one for
you just one that just occurs it just
occurred to me um let's talk about the
this this port um this temporary
structure how complicated a logistical
exercise would is that likely to
be it's actually it's actually pretty
easy um what you need to do is um put a
floating dock in place and a country
like the us will have lots of these in
it supplies and then you you anchor that
you put an anchor down to the seabed and
you and you secure it with chains and
then once you've done that and that will
be several hundred meters off the coast
you then have a a pontoon uh Causeway
that links up to the land so that bits
pretty easy the bit that's really
difficult is once you get the supplies
onto the beach or onto the coast in Gaza
how they get distributed from there
that's the real challenge right and so
we haven't heard anything in this deal
about that that sort of that that final
uh bit of this who distributes it uh
distributes the aid and and how because
this has been a real uh point of
contention across the last two
months well one of the things that's
happened that I think hasn't been uh
reported uh very extensively is that the
Palestinian police in Gaza have
effectively stepped down because they
were being targeted they they carry
weapons and they were being targeted by
the Israelis and so without police of
course you know Law and Order breaks
down this happens in any society if you
get rid of the police and these are the
guys who would be protecting and
distributing Aid convoys other than that
it's Nos and I don't think NOS really
have got the manpower to do that so
there needs to be some kind of deal that
allows the Palestinian police to come
back to work perhaps not carrying
weapons carrying sticks or something on
that enables them to help secure the
distribution of Aid okay thanks for that
Mike Mike Martin thank you so much from
Kings College London thanks
for