Italian charity sends 15 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza via Cyprus

An Italian charity has sent 15 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza for distribution among the civilian population.

The aid, which was collected from donors by the charity Confederazione Nazionale delle Misericordie d'Italia, took off aboard a C-130J military aircraft from an airfield in the central city of Pisa.

"We will continue to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of the population of Gaza. Italy does not forget those who suffer," Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in a post on X.

The plane will first fly to the airport in Larnaca on Cyprus and the aid will be transferred from there to Gaza by sea.

The aid will be shipped to the Strip via the Cyprus Maritime Corridor, an initiative of the Cypriot government in coordination with the United Nations and international partners such as the European Union.

The aid is expected to arrive at the Israeli port of Ashdod. Israel has long been criticised for impeding the flow of aid into Gaza, something it has always denied.

On Thursday, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, "in the last two days alone six attempts to deliver lifesaving assistance to besieged areas in North Gaza governorate were blocked."

The office said that 79% of Gaza's population is under active evacuation orders, complicating aid deliveries, and accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that tracks and records all aid transferred into Gaza, maintains aid is flowing into the Strip, primarily via the Kerem Shalom, Erez and Kissufim crossings. Kissufim was opened for aid deliveries on Tuesday.

According to data published on the COGAT website, more than 1.1 million tonnes of aid has passed into Gaza since the start of the war in