By Manal Abdel Fattah
Today, Tuesday, the first British sea shipment of aid provided to the Gaza Strip arrived in Egypt, including approximately 90 tons of thermal blankets and other basic materials.
According to a statement issued by the British Embassy in Cairo, the ship “Lime Bay” supporting the British Royal Fleet transported a shipment of life-saving materials coming from Cyprus, which included thermal blankets, shelter supplies, and medical supplies provided by the United Kingdom and the Republic of Cyprus.
The shipment included more than 10,000 thermal blankets, about 5,000 packages of shelter supplies, and medical supplies that will be transported to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
The Egyptian Red Crescent Society will receive this aid from Port Said port and then transport it to Al-Arish, and then bring it through Rafah to Gaza for distribution by UNRWA.
This comes in the wake of the visit of the Foreign Minister to Al-Arish in Egypt, on December 21, to meet with representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society who are coordinating relief efforts at the Rafah crossing, and the visit of the Minister of Defense to Cyprus and Israel earlier this month, last December 7, to urge… Accelerating the entry of aid into Gaza.
Both the Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister have made clear that Israel must increase the flow of aid to Gaza, and facilitate the delivery of relief on the ground, including through negotiated humanitarian truces.
The UK will continue to explore other ways to deliver aid, including the Cyprus initiative to establish a sea corridor between Cyprus and the occupied Palestinian territories, and supporting the work of the World Food Program by securing the humanitarian land corridor from Jordan via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The UK has so far announced that it will spend nearly £60 million of additional funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza this financial year, tripling the current total annual budget allocated to the occupied Palestinian territories.
The latest £30 million funding package, announced by the Foreign Secretary on his recent visit to the region, has been allocated to trusted partners providing aid on the ground, including UNRWA, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the OCHA Crowdfunding Fund and the Cross British Red Crescent, to support the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies.
