How is the Open Arms ship delivering aid to Gaza by sea?

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A maritime effort to deliver aid to Gaza began on Thursday, with Cyprus serving as an aid hub for the mission.

The UAE and the EU heavily back the delivery of the relief with two aid organisations, Open Arms and World Central Kitchen, providing a ship and 200 tonnes of food, with UAE funding. The vessel was hours away from Gaza's coastline on Thursday afternoon.

The plan involved lengthy negotiations with Israel, which has been accused of deliberately holding up aid deliveries at the Rafah-Egypt border.

Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is facing food insecurity, while at least 500,000 face famine, according to UN assessments.

Separately, there is another maritime aid effort en route from the US, which will involve the construction of a floating pier in Gaza. The White House has stressed there will be no need to deploy US forces in Gaza as part of the operation.

Experts say the US effort could take months but both plans would deliver tens of thousands of tonnes of much-needed aid.

Here’s everything you need to know about the first aid to Gaza by sea, known as the Amalthea Initiative.

What is the Open Arms and World Central Kitchen Gaza plan?

Before President Joe Biden announced the US plan this month, talks had begun in November in Cyprus to send aid by sea, with cargo being checked and inspected by Israel in Larnaca.

The UAE was an early backer of the plan, with the Minister of State and UAE ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba saying “a maritime corridor with ongoing shipments is the only way to deliver large quantities of aid into Gaza. All parties must support this humanitarian mission”.

The idea was approved by Israel in December. However, on Wednesday, Open Arms told The National that technical plans still had to be drawn up. The charity's ship, of the same name, was previously involved in rescuing migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.

Last week, the European Commission announced the mission was set to expand. On Wednesday, Cyprus said a second, larger shipment of aid was ready to leave port as soon as the first delivery went ahead.

World Central Kitchen said it was loading a vessel at Larnaca port with 300 tonnes of food aid, including legumes, canned tuna, vegetables, rice and flour.

"Our pallets should be screened and loaded by the end of the day Cyprus time," the charity said in a statement. It did not say when the vessel would set sail.

“Cyprus' leadership in establishing the Amalthea Initiative – which outlines a mechanism for securely shipping aid from Cyprus to Gaza via sea – was integral to enabling this joint effort to launch a maritime corridor,” the European Commission said.

“Together, our nations intend to build on this model to deliver significant additional aid by sea, working in co-ordination with UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction co-ordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag – who is charged with facilitating, co-ordinating, monitoring, and verifying the flow of aid into Gaza.”

The EC praised “the dedicated efforts of the UAE to mobilise support for the Initiative will result in the initial shipment of food by sea to the people of Gaza”.

How will the Gaza aid plan move forward?

As Gaza’s small port is damaged and cannot handle large amounts of cargo, World Central Kitchen, which has a network of 60 kitchens throughout Gaza, has worked with locals to build a 60-metre-long jetty to deliver aid from the barge, a plan announced by its founder Jose Andres.

Towing an aid barge, the Open Arms – originally a search-and-rescue vessel – has been in service for 50 years. The charity says the ship has sailed the equivalent of twice round the world on humanitarian missions and has rescued a total of "8,159 migrants in danger of death" in the Mediterranean, Angelo Attanasio, spokesman for the charity, told The National.

Open Arms has a five-metre draft, limiting how close it can approach the Gazan shore. Currently, shallow draft military landing craft – which can land on the beach – are unavailable. One diplomatic source told The National this idea was being considered.

The plans could expand rapidly, according to Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, and experts from the EU have been assessing how to widen the project. Larnaca reportedly has a capacity for 200,000 tonnes of aid.

On Wednesday, Mr Kombos held a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and senior ministers and officials from the UK, the UAE, Qatar, the EU and the UN to discuss the maritime corridor.

“The ministers agreed that there is no meaningful substitute to land routes via Egypt and Jordan and entry points from Israel into Gaza for aid delivery at scale,” they said.

They also called on Israel to open the port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, for aid deliveries.

Senior officials will gather in Cyprus on Monday for “in-depth” briefings on the corridor.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

How is the Open Arms ship delivering aid to Gaza by sea?

Multinational plan for shipments of humanitarian delivery, first discussed in November, is scaling up rapidly

What is the Open Arms and World Central Kitchen Gaza plan?

How will the Gaza aid plan move forward?