EU chief to visit Cyprus to discuss Gaza maritime aid corridor

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit Cyprus this week for talks on a maritime aid corridor from the island to Gaza, officials said Wednesday.

The island nation -- only 370 kilometres (230 miles) away from Gaza -- has proposed a dedicated one-way maritime corridor as a way of providing uninterrupted aid to civilians in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said von der Leyen would meet Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides before visiting a joint rescue coordination centre "in the context of the opening of a maritime humanitarian corridor to Gaza".

Cyprus government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis told reporters she would arrive on the island on Friday.

"Interest from... EU member states and institutions regarding the planning for the maritime corridor has been high," he added.

After speaking with Christodoulides earlier in the week about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, von der Leyen posted on X, saying the "EU Commission will support the implementation of Cyprus' maritime corridor initiative."

This comes as Brussels has called for more aid to reach Gazans as Israel battles Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory, where the United Nations estimates that over half a million people are "one step away from famine".

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 30,717 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.