Preparations are underway to use Cyprus as a launching pad for European countries to send humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The island nation in the Mediterranean Sea is already home to a command center used by 21 countries to evacuate their citizens from crisis areas. This facility could be used to dispatch aid.
The government of Cyprus said Israel will not oppose the plan, so long as its officials can check what is loaded onto ships. "Now we have proceeded from the political to the technical part of it," Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a spokesperson for the presidency of Cyprus, told DW.
The main technical barrier is that the only port in Gaza has not been fully functional since the beginning of Israel and Egypt's blockade of the strip in 2007.
One proposal involves creating a floating, temporary port off the coast of Gaza. The Red Cross said it is in communication with the Cypriot government and can move quickly.
"We are ready at any time," said Christina Kapartis, secretary general of the Cyprus Red Cross.
