The following statement, released on Resistance News Network, was issued by Salama Marouf from the Government Media Office in Gaza on March 13, 2024.  

In light of the talk about a ship loaded with aid departing from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus heading to Gaza, we confirm that, up to this moment, the efforts to relieve our people are weak and remain below the minimum required in face of the humanitarian disaster that is befalling our people, especially in northern Gaza, where more than 700,000 citizens are suffering a clear starvation war.

As announced, the load of the ship does not exceed the load of one or two trucks and will take days. It is still unknown where it will dock and how it will reach the shores of Gaza, in addition to it being subject to inspection by the occupation army.

Therefore, the relevance of this mechanism is questionable, and it would be more appropriate for everyone to pressure the occupation to allow the entry of aid convoys by land and through known crossings such as Rafah, Karam Abu Salem, or to activate the Mintar, Shuja’iyya, and Beit Hanoun crossings.

The international community must urgently convene before it is too late to save those who are dying of hunger. The best way to do this is to operate the land crossings in a manner that allows the rapid entry of thousands of aid and relief trucks that are lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, which the occupation refuses to allow entry, disregarding the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice, without any regard for the disastrous humanitarian reality in the northern part of the Strip.