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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

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CIA director Burns says a Gaza ceasefire deal is still

possible

but many complicated issues remain to be worked through.

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Senior UN officials welcome the opening of the maritime

corridor

from Cyprus but say it cannot replace aid deliveries by land.

By Michele Kambas and Nidal al-Mughrabi

LARNACA, Cyprus/CAIRO, March 12 (Reuters) - A ship

carrying 200 tonnes of aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday in a

pilot project to open a sea corridor to deliver supplies to a

population that aid agencies say is on the brink of famine.

While welcoming the project, however, senior U.N.

officials said it could not

replace

the delivery of humanitarian aid by land from Egypt and

Jordan. Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on

Tuesday it had managed to get the first aid convoy into Gaza

City in the north of the Gaza Strip since Feb. 20.

The charity ship Open Arms was seen sailing out of Larnaca

port, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein. The

mission was funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates and

organised by U.S.-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).

The voyage to Gaza takes about 15 hours but a heavy tow

barge could considerably lengthen the trip, possibly up to two

days. Cyprus is just over 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Gaza.

The U.S. military said one of its vessels, the General Frank

S. Besson, was also en route to provide humanitarian relief to

Gaza by sea.

With aid agencies saying deliveries into Gaza have been held

up by bureaucratic obstacles and insecurity since the start of

the war on Oct. 7, attention has shifted towards alternative

routes including sea and air drops.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said

on Tuesday that negotiators seeking a ceasefire between Israel

and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were

not close to a deal.

Washington had said for weeks that it hoped for a truce deal

in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month that began this week,

but it has so far failed to materialise.

On Tuesday, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director

William Burns said there was "still a possibility" of a Gaza

ceasefire deal, although many complicated issues remain.

Tuesday's sea supply mission was the culmination of months

of preparation by Cyprus, the European Union member state

closest to the conflict. It is keeping a wary eye on spillover

effects from upheaval in the Middle East and is already seeing

migratory inflows from Lebanon increasing. More than 400 people

arrived in fishing boats on Monday.

LANDING JETTY

Given the lack of port infrastructure in Gaza, WCK said it

was building a landing jetty with material from destroyed

buildings and rubble, an initiative separate to a plan announced

by U.S. President Joe Biden last week to build a temporary pier.

Construction of the jetty is "well underway", WCK founder

Jose Andres said in a post on X accompanied by a picture of

bulldozers apparently levelling out ground close to the sea.

WCK Activation Manager Juan Camilo Jimenez told Reuters a

second vessel would depart within the next few days.

Aid agencies say such efforts can provide only limited

relief as long as most land crossings to the coastal Palestinian

enclave are completely sealed off by Israel.

"For aid delivery at scale, there is no meaningful

substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel

into Gaza," U.N. Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for

Gaza Sigrid Kaag and U.N. Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement.

Israel says it is not to blame for Gaza's hunger, as it

is allowing aid through two crossings at the southern edge of

the territory. Aid agencies say that is not enough to get

sufficient supplies through, particularly to the northern part

of the enclave that is effectively cut off.

Commenting on Tuesday's aid delivery to the north of the

Gaza Strip, WFP spokesperson Shaza Moghraby said: "We were

finally able to deliver enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza

City in the early hours of this morning. This... proves that

moving food by road is possible."

Gaza's health ministry said the number of Palestinians

who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in the last two

weeks had reached 27, after the deaths of two people on Tuesday.

The U.N. estimates a quarter of the 2.3 million population

in Gaza is now at risk of starvation.

"We are being starved in two ways: food is scarce, and the

little that is available is so expensive as to be beyond

imagination," said Yamen, a father of four, whose family took

shelter in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

GUNFIRE

The conflict has displaced most of Gaza's population and

there have been chaotic scenes and deadly incidents at aid

distributions as desperately hungry people scramble for food.

On Tuesday, Palestinian health officials reported that nine

Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire

as crowds awaited aid trucks on Kuwait Square in Gaza City.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.

Fighters from Hamas, which administers Gaza, killed 1,200

people in a lightning Oct. 7 attack on Israel and took 253

hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least

31,184 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities, and injured

72,889.

Ceasefire talks have so far failed to reach a breakthrough,

with Israel saying it is interested only in a temporary truce to

free hostages, and Hamas saying it will let them go only as part

of a deal to permanently end the war.

Qatar, a mediator alongside Egypt and the United States,

said on Tuesday it was still working to establish a permanent

ceasefire, rather than a short-term truce.

In Washington, CIA chief Burns told a House of

Representatives hearing: "I think there's still the possibility

of such a (ceasefire) deal. And as I said, it won't be for lack

of trying on our part, working very closely with our Israeli,

Qatari and Egyptian counterparts. This is a very tough process."