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The Cyprus-Gaza maritime aid corridor was a harmful publicity stunt
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks and the start of the latest Israeli military offensive on Gaza, calls for unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have remained unanswered.
As violence continues with no end in sight, the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza has drastically increased.
Aid packages airdropped by Jordan and France provided temporary relief to a limited number of people, but did nothing to ease the suffering of the masses.
In many cases, these initiatives served only to provide political capital for responsible governments, allowing them to appear engaged while avoiding the difficult decisions and actions necessary to make a real difference.
The most high-profile, costly and overall harmful example of such symbolic aid initiatives was the US-led effort to establish a temporary maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza to deliver aid. Initially hailed as a vital humanitarian lifeline that would allow aid deliveries to bypass heavily contested land routes and swiftly reach target populations, the project has proven fraught with inefficiencies and complications.
Reportedly, the idea of a maritime aid corridor was first proposed to US President Joe Biden and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within the first few weeks of Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza. According to the Reuters news agency, Israel believed this would be an “important step” towards disengaging economically from the enclave. After months of political wrangling, the corridor became operational in May, nearly seven months after the beginning of the conflict.
The launch of the aid operation received much fanfare across the world and was applauded by the US and its European allies alike as an important step to prevent famine in the besieged Strip. The cost of the project was also considerable. The US government allocated about $230m to the operation, deploying 1,000 US soldiers and sailors along with 16 ships. The United Kingdom government is also known to have contributed to the mission.
Despite its high-profile launch and considerable price tag, the humanitarian impact of the maritime corridor has been extremely limited. Due to various issues, the corridor operated effectively for only 20 days before it was officially abandoned.
According to a report by the US Agency for International Development’s Office of the Inspector General, the US expected to deliver enough aid to feed 500,000 people for 90 days. However, in the end, only about 8,100 metric tonnes of aid – equivalent to just one day’s worth of pre-war aid deliveries by truck – was delivered through the corridor during its brief operational window.
In the end, the cost of the maritime corridor was not only financial. This stunt, which at every step put Israel’s interests above the needs of Palestinians, also had a heavy humanitarian cost because it politicised aid and helped Israel undermine with impunity international humanitarian law (IHL), which clearly forbids the blocking of aid to a civilian population.
Not only was the Israeli military, which is the very reason why Palestinians are in need in the first place, given a say in how and where this aid was delivered, but it was also allowed to inspect aid packages in Cyprus before they began their journey to Gaza. All this raised serious questions about the impartiality of the mission. Furthermore, it created the impression that certain actors can disregard IHL, or worse, try to use it to reach their political and military objectives.
The failure of the Cyprus-Gaza maritime corridor and other similarly symbolic initiatives in Gaza do not harm only the Palestinians left without aid. They also harm everyone, everywhere affected by conflict because they undermine the very foundations of humanitarianism and humanitarian law.
The people of Gaza, like everyone affected by conflict everywhere in the world, deserve more than symbolic gestures. They deserve a truly impartial, efficient and unhindered flow of assistance to alleviate their suffering.
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