The UK Government has announced a package of military and civilian support to set up a maritime aid corridor to Gaza, including the deployment of a Royal Navy ship.

The ship, alongsideĀ newĀ UK aid and British expertise, will support the establishment ofĀ an internationalĀ humanitarian maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, supported by many of our partner governments and the UN, and is expected to be operational in early May.

According to a news release, as well as the Royal Navy ship, the FCDO is also committing up to Ā£9.7 million for aid deliveries; logistical expertise and equipment support to the corridor, such as forklift trucks and storage units; and expertise, to maximise the levels of aid reaching those people who desperately need it.

“Today marks six months since the devastating October 7 terrorist attacks, and almost a week since British aid workers were killed trying to get life-saving food to those in need. The UK continues to call for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire, as the fastest way to get hostages safely home and more aid in. In the meantime, the UK Government is doing everythingĀ possibleĀ to get more aid into Gaza by land, air and sea. In recent weeks, the Royal Air Force has conducted five airdrops along the coastline of Gaza,Ā safelyĀ delivering over 40 tonnes of food supplies, including water, flour and baby formula.Ā 

Supporting the Jordanian humanitarian land corridor from Amman into Gaza and in partnership with the World Food Programme, the UKā€™s largest delivery of aid crossed the borderĀ on 13 March which sawĀ more than 2,000 tonnes of food aid being distributed on the ground to families in need.Ā Land deliveries will now be scaled up with the opening of the Erez crossing, which the UK wants to see reopened permanently.Ā 

A full UK field hospital run by UK-Med is also now fully operational in Gaza and providing life-saving care. It has already treated more than 3,000 people, almost half of them children. “

Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, said:

“The situation in Gaza is dire and the prospect of famine is real. We remain committed to getting aid to those who so desperately need it. Along with the US, Cyprus and other partners, we are setting up a new temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to get aid in as quickly and securely as possible. Land access remains crucial to deliver aid at the scale now required. The opening of Erez and the Port of Ashdod is hugely welcome and something the UK has long been calling for. Israel has also agreed to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to a minimum of 500 a day. But we need to continue to explore all options, including by sea and air, to ease the desperate plight of some of the worldā€™s most vulnerable people.”

Following the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers last week, the UK government continues to call for urgent reform of deconfliction mechanisms, alongside assurances that guarantee the safety and security of humanitarian aid workers, who work tirelessly on the ground to ensure vital aid supplies reach those who need it most.

The multinational maritime corridor initiative will see tens of thousands of tonnes of aid pre-screened in Cyprus and delivered directly to Gaza, via the new US temporary pier being constructed off the coast or via Ashdod Port, which Israel has now agreed to open.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps commented:

“A Royal Navy ship is now en-route to the Eastern Mediterranean to support international efforts to get life-saving aid to Gaza. The Armed Forces are playing a central role in delivering aid, with the Royal Air Force recently completing five airdrops of food supplies for the people of Gaza. We are now going further, working with international partners to set up a humanitarian maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza. A new temporary pier on the coast of Gaza will be critical to supporting these efforts, by hosting cargo ships to deliver aid by sea. I would like to thank all the personnel involved in this effort, working around the clock to help provide critical aid under immensely challenging circumstances.”

The FCDO say that British military teams have been embedded with planning teams in the US operational HQ in Tampa as well as in Cyprus for several weeks to jointly develop the safest and most effective maritime route. The UK Hydrographic Office has also shared analysis of the Gazan shore with US planners to help establish the temporary aid pier.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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59 COMMENTS

    • Neither I hope. Aid will actually be sent via cargo ships any one of which could bring in many times what a RFA logistics supply ship can handle. Sending anything smaller would be Pointless. So the function of the Royal Navy will be to fly the flag and garner the column inches. If they must send anyone, they should send a B1 River alongside a Point. Mersey got a new paint job a couple of months ago and will look good for the cameras.

      • Point class always get forgotten but itā€™s what they are designed for RoRo into a Port. And although they are neither RN nor RFA their crews are all sponsored reservists so just need calling up.

        • One of the other things people forget is that the B1’s cranes have a higher capacity than the B2’s, so if your RoRo gets stuck (not sure why) a B1 is good company.

          Instead it’ll probably be Mounts or Cardigan Bay, strike willing, as I expect they have to pay for the Points on call off. Much better to eat into military capability to get a less capable ship and not have a cross-charge for the FO.

          Navy Lookout think it will be Cardigan: already in use and having to go through Bab-al-Mandab. There again, why send an RFA into one war zone when you can send it into two?

          • It really depends on which way they go if itā€™s on a temporary pier then use a Bay with LSTs, but if itā€™s Ashdod then RoRo Point is the way to go.
            Personally I wish they had just offered airlift via Cyprus and nothing else, this is one mess we should avoid.
            Larder is bare DC saw to that šŸ˜©

    • It sums up where we’ve got to, suddenly RFA ships are counted as warships now. Given the threat, i.e. a war it should be a RFA escorted by a type 23 but it’ll be one or the other and left to the US to provide the other

  2. There’s plenty of aid getting to Gaza. It’s not being distributed inside Gaza. If the US have solved the internal logistics problem, getting in aid via Israel or Egypt would be simple. If they haven’t, the new pier will be just another blocked up entry point. Last I heard, the US were hiring a private security firm to do the job as they didn’t want to risk their soldiers’ lives. They’ll be at arm’s length and deniable so I’d expect them to distribute via Hamas to avoid being killed. Israel will object to Hamas’s power base being boosted and will block deliveries, then everyone will scream at Israel again. And round it goes.

    A maritime corridor is just a showy bit of virtue signalling. The Royal Navy are awesome, but even they can’t sail ships on land.

  3. It would seem the RFA Lyme Bay has already been to Gaza this year, so I assume this is new, i.e an actual warship. I doubt it will be anything smaller than a Type 23.

    Shame we do not have a RN base in Cyprus on top of the RAF base.

      • We simply need to replace the Typhoons with supersonic boat planes. The age of the Carrier will come to an end as stealthy boat planes take off from submarines and LPDs.

        • I’m sure you could get a few million in consulting fees from the Navy for that, would save them the wrangling over F35.
          On a more realistic note, how about a flying boat in the MALE class? You’d have it fit in a T26 bay with launch over the side and potentially, yes, also on the back of an Astute with 8 hour endurance and reasonable ISTAR payload (maybe brimstone?). Would have folding wings and tail, probably top mounted prop for water spray reduction.
          That would allow ships on their own to have a “persistent”, “flexible” and “organic” capability without taking up helo or flight deck space.

          • I was thinking for the shape to have the engine on a pylon above the high wing. EO turret above the nose (can’t be below as water). If you take the Lake Renegade as an example (yes, I have trawled Wikipedia for something looking about right) then you get a range of just over 1000 miles with 5 passengers out of an aircraft with 9m length, 12m wingspan and 250hp engine.
            My UAV would:

            1. Remove passengers, which would increase range or allow extra payload
            2. Scale up to be about 15m long (12 folded).
            3. Fit the 900hp engine off the MQ9 reaper, which seems about right for the endurance and takeoff in reasonable sea states.
            4. Remove amphibious undercarriage for maximum fuel capacity and range. This UAV is unlikely to need to land ashore given that it is deployed purely from ships.

            These modifications would probably allow about 15h endurance with 2000 mile range, nothing to be sniffed at given the deployment from a boat sized space.

  4. Thereā€™s a border the length of Gaza with Israel and along the south with Egypt. Why is this so complicated to move aid through these. Spending millions on ships seems really wasteful.
    I hope the loudest supporters of Gaza are putting in 10x the aid the U.K. is.
    Still Hamas could fix this quickly. Return hostages and declare no more attacks. Could even throw in an international observed election. Let the people of Gaza choose their future.
    What a mess.
    The West Bank needs statehood quickly. They have shown restraint and act like a country already. This would also show Gaza what it could have.

    • The way I see this, its nothing more than a publicity move by the Tory party to capture some of that lost Islamic vote that historically has voted labour and which of late have deserted it. Also I feel it is also been used to placate the same crowd from their anti British protests which have plagued the Uk since Oct, this can also been seen how the Cameron has publicly been most vocal against Israel. The handing over of Ā£117 million to improve the security of mosques in the Uk and the appointment of an adviser to tackle IslamophobiaThe icing on the cake will be the relocation of thousands of Gazans to the Uk for humanitarian reasons, problem there all of this is simply asking for trouble further down the line where the tail (as we have already seen) gets to wag the dog.

  5. How will we ensure that this food gets to women and children and not the young male fighters of Hamas….Oh I forgot those guys are on the dinghies heading across the channel….

  6. Big fat no from me. Not our bunfight and we need our limited resources doing “stuff” elsewhere. Tory virtue signalling at its worst.

    • Looks like positioning Cameron v.2 for the Tory leadership post election?
      Whatever your take on all this is šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ and others are at least being seen doing something for the Gazans. Better than doing absolutely nothing. Having some influence, showing some humanity and using their logistics abilities. And maybe trying to create some breathing space between the warring parties?
      As an aside i wonder what’s happening with port of Beirut and the rebuild from all the devastation that occurred there? I believe there are British Army forces deployed there too with permission from the Lebanese government.
      It’s going to be interesting to see who grabs all the rebuild work in Gaza if there ever is a chance to. It looks a nightmare!

      • Have to say I think Cameron is doing a good job; objective, direct and assertive. Basically a decent man I think; as PM he was defeated by overwhelming -ve forces whose character has become visible since he left office. Who knows, like General Macarthur maybe he will return šŸ™‚
        The UK has been quietly supporting the Lebanese government and armed forces. We recently sent 60 tons of spares for Lebanese army Land Rovers that we donated a while back; 225 engines and hundreds of tyres. Apparently the UK has a ‘Conflict, Stability and Security Fund’ . Good to know and some reconstruction business would be nice.
        The UK gets too little credit…let’s get this right…we are good guys trying to restore order and peace while Iran and Putin and wreaking global destabilisation.

        • Agree with your Paul. I can’t stand the šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ being talked down. Not perfect, has its past, but I think here genuinely trying to do a good thing. We’re very biased of course in always thinking the best of Britain. I think a decent šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ will always be a force for the good, law and order in the world. Helps us and other like minded countries to differentiate from those that aren’t and show a different way of being. Cameron v2 might be better than v1 even in opposition and maybe the PM in a future round. If Labour gets in next or whoever does, let’s hope they do their best for the whole of the šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§!

          • The future leader of the Tory Party will be decided by just one single factor ! Who is actually left after the GE to pick from and no way will it be a Member of the Lords.
            Yes DC is a decent man, but how anyone on this site can overlook the 2010 Defence cuts is beyond me.

          • But they forget. He also devastated the Civil service, cooked the books, kept the poor poor with austerity while claiming we were all in it together, and having narrowly survived a poorly prepared for IndyRef, he led us into a completely unprepared for Brexit Ref, dividing the country for years. Then he ran away from the mess he created.

          • Trust me Iā€™m no fan, between him and Bliar Iā€™d struggle to pick which one to shoot.

      • No chance ! The world has moved on since we had a member of the House of Lords as PM. Besides which he would be slaughtered by both wings of the Tory Party.
        Treasonous Defence cuts, Brexit referendum, Overseas aid budget as a rink fenced budget and ā€œcall me Daveā€.
        Besides which with only 2 remaining MPs after the next GE heā€™ll never get a majority šŸ¤£

          • Firstly can you see him wanting to be a leader of what will be left of the Tory party and in long term opposition ?
            To lead an opposition party you need to be in the Commons as you canā€™t take part in debates or PMQā€™s in the Lords. So he would have to renounce his title and get elected as an MP PDQ in a safe Tory seat. Last one to do that was Alec Douglas Home and there are very few ā€œSafeā€ Tory seats left.
            Most of the Tory far right are leaving en masse so if you want a bet Iā€™d back Penny Mordant over Dave everyday of the week and twice on Sunday.

            Ā£2 ?

  8. This wastes scarce resources on a publicity stunt which does not in any way fix the problem. Also giving any sort of aid to Hamas murderers makes me nauseous. At some point we’re going to have to find a better way of improving the behaviour and competency of our political class.Continually exhausitng ourselves doing the stupid just has to end.

    • They are beyond any hope of using that commodity known as “common sense”. You have seen that on London’s streets. Tolerating open support for terrorists every weekend. Be better helping Israel solve the terrorist problem for good.

      • Daily Telegraph from yesterday:
        Just one in four British Muslims believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel
        Only one in four British Muslims believe that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on Oct 7, a major report has found.
         
        46 per cent of British Muslims said they sympathise with Hamas, according to a poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a counter-extremism think-tank. The survey, which is the largest of its kind to be carried out since the Israel-Hamas conflict began, asked a range of questions to British Muslims as well as to the general public.
         Its findings come on the six-month anniversary of the Oct 7 massacre, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killed around 1,200 citizens and took 253 people hostage.
         
        The survey also found that just over half (52 per cent) of British Muslims :
        Want to make it illegal to show a picture of the Prophet Mohammed, compared to just 16 per cent of the public.

        A third of British Muslims (32 per cent) want to see Shariah law implemented in the UK versus nine per cent of the public.
         
        Younger and well-educated Muslims were the most likely to think Hamas did not commit atrocities on Oct 7, with the proportions rising to 47 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds and 40 per cent among the university-educated.

        Last night, ministers were urged to step up their efforts to counter extreme narratives. Fiyaz Mughal, who founded interfaith groups Tell Mama, Faith Matters and Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, said the findings are ā€œshocking but also not shockingā€. He said: ā€œHamas is an Islamist extremist and terrorist group and has been terrorising Gazans, Israelis and liberals within society for decades. ā€œThe sense that Hamas did not conduct massacres and rapes in Israel is atrocious because it shows a closed-off mentality to anything emanating from Israel.ā€

        The survey was carried out by J L Partners, the polling company which was founded by James Johnson, the former Downing Street pollster. It also found that almost half (46 per cent) of British Muslims say Jews have too much power over UK government policy, compared to 16 per cent of the general public. Among British Muslims, 41 per cent said Jews have too much power in the media industry and 39 per cent said Jews have too much power in the UKā€™s financial system.

        • The desire for ā€˜Sharia lawā€™ is a natural human tendency. The UK is notionally and constitutionally a Christian culture. It is nevertheless not uncommon for grieving relatives of murder victims to think that they not the judge and jury system should decide the guilt or innocence and punishment handed out to the accused. The English and Scottish legal systems are the nearest we come implementing the religious concepts of penance and divine mercy. They are a precious inheritance of the Plantagenet period and earlier Saxon values. The Muslims who advocate Sharia Law should be told firmly to take a hike!

        • I read the same article Farouk. Very worrying and dare I predict a sign of the things to come on our streets? Refusal to integrate is the problem. Where Hindu, Sikh and even East Europeans have? Many Muslims have flatly refused. As for them not believing truths of atrocities? Rather akin to the stupid elements of society who called the Provos “freedom fighters”….

          • The DT has been running a steady stream of articles broadly arguing that the reason the UK is in decline is that we ( and in particular the C of E) have abandoned our Christian heritage. I’m not a political right wing person but I broadly agree with this analysis. My grandmother used to say ‘ if you don’t bend you break’. Seems to me that a mind formed by Islamic schooling is characterised by a strong intellectual and will, but that it is very inflexible especially with regard to new cultural experiences. The UK is being patient with the glacial pace of Muslim adaptation and much more successful that France which is hampered by its constitutional adoption of laicitĆ©. The French seem to take it a badge of honour to give gratuitous offence to any clericalism, including Catholicism. Immigrants from Eastern will integrate easily; they are Christian.

          • Richard Edward wrote:
            “”Stop with your racist Posts mateā€¦.. We all see you for what you are””

            It never fails to amaze me how internet social justice warriors like you who because they have earned the dizzy heights of Major disaster on their PlayStation, subscribe to this notion that they are the Bees Knees and that they know everything and that anybody who disagrees with their wonk mindset must be silenced via the uses of the following tropes :
            Racist
            Far right
            Daily Mail reader
            Sorry to inform you , Iā€™m not white, according to your bigoted book of cancelling for dummies, as a non-white person I cant be a f-ing racist, and the last I looked Islam is a religion and not a race. So how you have arrived at the conclusion that posting a newspaper article regards the polarized mindset of the followers of a religion I was born into construes somehow as racism is beyond me. On that note Abdul, do tell us all what the punishment is for apostates from Islam? Or is that ok for dickheads like you who have no problem bending over 5 times a day and swallowing what their mullah unzips.

            Jesus H christ if you had another braincell it would be lonely 

  9. By all means sent them Aid ,but I hope MR Cameron relies we don’t have an awful lot of ships for some reason šŸ¤” šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§

    • It might still be worth it for the hearts, minds and stomachs of the Gazans to disassociate from the Hamas standing on their own feet. The West needs to show it values in action.

      • Good post. I’ve often heard comments from Israeli sources arguing that the Palestinians have only themsrlves to blame; that they ought to detach themselves from Hamas. But to do that you need help and a viable political alternative. This conflict is an opportunity to break that toxic dependency. Also read today that fundamental Jewish political leadership in Israeli have threatened to bring down Netanyahu if he compromises on his hard line strategy. Takes 2 to Tango. Maybe he will get the girl and save the world.

  13. All this aid only for Hamas to take it for themselves.

    All the bleeding hearts need to remember that Israel never asked for this war. If Hamas didnā€™t do what they did on 7th Oct, there wouldnā€™t be one single Palestinian dead or displaced.

    Look at it this way, the 1,200 innocent Israelis killed that day equates to 30,000 Americans when you adjust for population size. You mean to tell me if 30,000 Americans were butchered, raped, beheaded and set on fire in one day, the US would give a crap about the civilian population??? They would turn that area into a wasteland!

    Why isnā€™t Eygpt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia taking their so-called brothers into their countries?? Answer is simple – they donā€™t want them and never did. Why isnā€™t Hamas letting the civilian population use the tunnels (which they have declared can only be used by Hamas fighters)? Hamas doesnā€™t give a damn about their own people but still, itā€™s Israelā€™s fault???

    People need to wake up and smell the roses, Israel lives in a tough neighborhood and is surrounded by people who want them wiped off the face of the earth.

    Israel has set out to make sure 7th Oct never happens again – and they will!

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