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Cyprus sea corridor will replace Israel crossings for aid transport to Gaza

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The sea corridor would replace the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings as primary supply route for Gaza.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel has given the green light for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor that would allow shipments of food, medicine, and aid to reach Gaza without involving Israel, Israel Hayom reported Wednesday.

Once established, this sea corridor will replace the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings and would ensure essential supplies for Gazans would no longer have to be transported through Israel.

At the beginning of the war, Israel declared it could no longer take responsibility for Gazan civilians during military operations, and Greece and Cyprus proposed the sea corridor as a solution.

Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen was involved with the proposal from the beginning and has informed the foreign ministers of Greece and Cyprus that Israel believes the sea corridor can start operating once all of the preparations have been made.

Last week, Cohen visited the site where the transports will originate, the ZENON coordination center, where all goods headed to Gaza will be inspected by Israelis to ensure there are no weapons or military equipment before arriving in the Mawassi port in the Southern Gaza strip.

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Eli Cohen was enthusiastic about the agreement after meeting with his Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos.

Cohen said, “A sea corridor would enable total financial disconnect from Gaza. We refuse to return to the situation that preceded the murderous terrorist attack on October 7th.”

He emphasized Israel’s involvement in the process to ensure the highest level of security.

“The goods transported through the corridor will undergo a security check in coordination with Israel and then be transferred by sea to the Gaza Strip,” Cohen said.

Although the arrangement would remove the burden on Israel for transporting humanitarian supplies to Gaza and would clear it of blame when Hamas interferes with these shipments as it has done since the beginning of the war, one diplomatic source admitted that implementation of the plan may be complicated.

“The Cypriot proposal is a welcome development, but we need to discuss its various components to ensure that the corridor is secure both in terms of security and that the aid ultimately reaches the right hands within the Gaza Strip.”