The Nov. 1 report in The Maritime Executive provides a few more details on Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides’ proposal to set up a maritime humanitarian corridor to get aid into Gaza faster. According to this report, the U.K., France and the Netherlands are discussing the proposal to deliver aid by sea with the Cypriot government. The operation would be staged from the Cypriot Limassol port. The article raises the possibility of deploying European naval assets already in the area, such as the U.K.’s amphibious assault ship U.K. Royal Navy auxiliaries RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay and the French Navy’s helicopter carrier Tonnerre, to get the supplies in.
Given that Netanyahu’s Israel bombed Gaza’s seaport three weeks ago, amphibious landing ships and helicopters could overcome the lack of a functioning port—which makes clear that getting aid is a matter of political will, not military capabilities.
The article makes the obvious point that “although the U.S. has not been named as a potential participant in an aid sealift, multiple U.S. Navy assets with similar capabilities are also in the area”—quite an understatement!
