A SHIPMENT of humanitarian aid left a port in Cyprus this morning and was on its way to the US-built pier in Gaza, the first delivery to the newly built ramp, Cyprus’s foreign minister reported.

The relief is desperately needed, with the United Nations saying people in Gaza are on the brink of famine and as Israeli troops have ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

Israel also sent tanks to seize Gaza’s nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt earlier this week, shutting down a vital border entry point needed to get assistance into the battered enclave.

It remains uncertain whether Israel will launch an all-out invasion of Rafah as international efforts for a ceasefire continue.

Israel claims that an assault on Rafah is crucial to its goal of destroying Hamas after the militant group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which left 1,200 dead and 250 held as hostages.

The US, which opposes a Rafah invasion, says Israel has not provided a credible plan for evacuating and protecting the civilians crammed in Rafah. The war has killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and has driven about 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.

The US vessel Sagamore, loaded with much needed humanitarian assistance, departed from the port of Larnaca early today with the aim of transferring as much aid to Gaza as possible through the maritime corridor, said Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos.

Humanitarian workers say aid coming by sea won’t be enough to alleviate the dire humanitarian suffering in Gaza and that the most effective way to get assistance in is by land.

But the closure of the Rafah crossing and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing this week cut off the entry of food, supplies and fuel for aid lorries and generators.

International aid groups warned on Wednesday that a distribution network is at risk of collapse across the territory because fuel shipments into Gaza were cut off.

Israel’s threat to invade Rafah itself, where many of the aid groups have based their warehouses and staff, is also further disrupting distribution, the groups said.

Israel said it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday, and that it was shut after Hamas mortars killed four Israeli soldiers nearby in an attack on Sunday. Aid groups said no lorries were entering the Gaza side, however.

Lorries let through from Israel must be unloaded and the cargo reloaded onto lorries in Gaza, but no workers in Gaza can get to the facility to do so because it is too dangerous, the UN says.

Meanwhile, attacks continued across Gaza with Israeli air strikes on a residential building killing eight people, including four children, late on Wednesday, according to hospital records.

The strike hit a residential building in the area of Tel al-Sultan in western Rafah.