The first ship with humanitarian aid that arrived from the port of Cyprus is unloaded in the Gaza Strip

Footage from the AFP news agency shows the Open Arms ship leaving Cyprus on Tuesday towing a barge carrying 200 tonnes of food for Gazans who are at risk of starvation following more than five months of war, according to the Spanish charity that runs it.

“World Food Kitchen is now unloading from a barge docked at the quay,” said Linda Roth, a representative of the US charity partnering with Open Arms.

The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said an Israeli attack near an aid distribution point earlier killed 20 people. Israel blamed armed Palestinians who it said fired on civilians.

At least 149 people were killed in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.

Witnesses reported airstrikes and fighting in Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, as well as in the northern districts, where humanitarian conditions are particularly poor.

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 in Israel, when, according to official figures, around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

Hamas also took regarding 250 hostages, of which Israel knows regarding 130 are still in the Gaza Strip, including 31 dead hostages.

After vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive that killed at least 31,490 people, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.

About 80 percent out of 2.3 million Residents of the Gaza Strip were forced to leave their homes. The United Nations indicates that a quarter of the population of the territory is starving.

Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and a lack of law and order have made it nearly impossible to get aid to much of the territory with Gaza police off the streets.

It is unclear whether seaborne aid will be effective in dealing with this humanitarian catastrophe, as even if aid is delivered to the Gaza Strip it will be difficult to distribute.