LIMASSOL – A ship carrying 1,200 tons of food supplies to aid the Gaza Strip departed from Cyprus and was nearing the Israeli port of Ashdod on Tuesday as part of efforts to ease the growing crisis where famine is looming over the area.

This Panamanian-flagged ship is packed with 52 containers of food items such as pasta, rice, baby nourishment, and canned produce. The provisions had already undergone inspection by Israeli customs at Limassol’s Cypriot port, from which the vessel set off on Monday.

Approximately 700 tons of this aid originate from Cyprus, funded by donations made by the United Arab Emirates to the Amalthea Fund, established last year to facilitate maritime aid contributions. The remaining portion of the aid is supplied by Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious congregation in Malta, and the Kuwaiti NGO Al Salam Association.

“The situation is beyond dire,” Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press.

Last year, Cyprus served as a hub for the delivery of 22,000 tons of aid sent directly to Gaza, using a pier managed by the international charity World Central Kitchen and a U.S. military-run docking system known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system.

By late July 2024, the mission was concluded as aid groups withdrew due to persistent weather and security challenges that restricted the distribution of food and emergency supplies to the needy.

Cyprus’s Foreign Ministry noted that Tuesday’s mission, led by the United Nations, is a collaborative endeavor. Once the shipment is unloaded at Ashdod, U.N. aid personnel will coordinate the transportation of supplies to storage facilities and food stations run by the World Central Kitchen.

The charity, which was behind the first aid shipment to Gaza from Cyprus last year aboard a tug-towed barge, is widely trusted in the battered territory.

“The contribution of everyone involved is crucial and their commitment incredible,” Kombos said.

Shipborne deliveries can bring much larger quantities of aid than the air drops that several nations have recently made in Gaza.

The latest shipment comes a day after Hamas said it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire. Israel has not approved the latest proposal so far.

Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks stalled last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin has dismissed reports of starvation in Gaza are “lies” promoted by Hamas. But the U.N. last week warned that starvation and malnutrition in the Palestinian territory are at their highest levels since since the war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 in which the militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said the Palestinian death toll from from 22 months of war has passed 62,000. It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.