Foreign Minister Eli Cohen traveled to Cyprus on Wednesday to work out a deal for a maritime corridor from the island nation to Gaza that would replace the need to transport goods through land crossings with Israel.
If it becomes reality, the international community will no longer have a reason to pressure Israel into opening its border with Gaza.
Israel’s foreign ministry called it “an important step on the way to an economic disengagement from the Gaza Strip.”
The foreign minister met with his Cypriot counterpart, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombus, to promote the opening of the maritime corridor, to be subject to security inspection coordinated by Israel.
The foreign ministers visited the ZENON multipurpose coordination center and the port of Larnaca, which is expected to become the security checkpoint of the maritime corridor.
“The creation of a maritime corridor to Gaza will help Israel’s economic disengagement from the Strip,” Cohen said. “We will not allow a return to the reality that preceded the murderous terrorist attack of the seventh of October.”
The initiative would allow an early security check in Cyprus and the direct transfer of humanitarian aid and goods to the Gaza Strip.
If all goes well, it will start “already in the coming weeks, and then as a way for the transfer of goods to the Gaza Strip without crossing through Israel,” Cohen said.
The minister also thanked his Cypriot counterpart for standing by Israel and promoting economic and political measures against Hamas in the European Union.
“The international community must understand that what was will not be,” Cohen emphasized.
“We will not allow a return to the reality of October 6th. We will not allow Hamas, or any other terrorist organization, to control Gaza, and we will not allow the Gaza Strip to be a base for terrorist attacks against the citizens of Israel.”
Kerem Shalom Open Now, But Not Forever
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, badly damaged in the October 7th invasion by Hamas, was repaired and reopened last week in response to pressure from the United States.
“Israel announced that the Kerem Shalom crossing would be open temporarily as part of our understandings with our American allies to increase the flow of aid into Gaza,” Israel government spokesperson Eylon Levy clarified Wednesday evening at a briefing in Tel Aviv.
The reopening of Kerem Shalom was carried out as part of those understandings, he said, adding that the US has undertaken to fund an upgrade of the Rafah crossing “to ensure that in future all aid will be able to enter through Rafah and will not need to enter through Israeli crossings,” Levy said.
“I’ll remind you means that Israel is going above and beyond its obligations under international law to allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza. There is no obligation under international law to allow one’s own territory to be used to deliver supplies to enemy held territory across a hostile frontier — definitely no international precedent of that,” he said, adding that the move came as part of Israel’s “diplomatic undertakings and concern for civilians in Gaza.”
Nevertheless, the plan is Kerem Shalom crossing will be open only temporarily. “This is not a permanent solution, as far as we are concerned,” Levy said.
