GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, March 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The first
aid vessel heading to the besieged Gaza Strip via a new maritime corridor was
visible Friday off the coast of the war-ravaged territory, an AFP journalist
said.

AFP video footage and photographs showed the Open Arms towing a barge which
the Spanish charity operating it says is carrying 200 tonnes of food for
Gazans threatened with famine after more than five months of war.

The specialist site Vessel Finder showed the Open Arms roughly five
kilometres (three miles) off the coast of northern Gaza.

A handful of civilians gathered on the rubble-strewn coast on Friday to watch
the vessel, AFP footage showed, though it was unclear when it would actually
reach shore.

The food has been supplied by the US NGO World Central Kitchen, which has a
team in Gaza building a jetty onto which the cargo can be unloaded.

Cyprus, the Mediterranean nation which is the starting point for the maritime
corridor, has said a second, bigger vessel is being readied to make the same
journey.

However, the sea missions and airdrops are "no alternative" to land
deliveries, 25 organisations including Amnesty International and Oxfam said
in a statement this week.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has in recent weeks recorded at least
27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern
Israel which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians,
according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign to eliminate Hamas has killed at least
31,341 people, according to the health ministry.