Falmouth-based ‘Cluster' vessel RFA Cardigan Bay has sailed from Cyprus on a mission to provide support to an international effort building a temporary floating pier offshore, which will allow delivery of humanitarian aid directly from the sea into Gaza.

The Cardigan Bay will house hundreds of US sailors and soldiers building the offshore pier. Tens of thousands of tons of aid will be screened in Cyprus, loaded into ships to be discharged at the offshore pier at Gaza.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “It is critical we establish more routes for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza and the UK continues to take a leading role in the delivery of support in coordination with the US and our international allies and partners."

The logistics ship USNS Roy . Benavidez and several US landing craft are positioned approximately 6.8 miles offshore from Gaza, where a floating pier complex is being built by US sailors and soldiers.

Inshore, a two laned 550 metre long causeway will be constructed and anchored to the shore, to allow smaller craft carrying aid to berth alongside. This will initially facilitate the delivery of 90 truckloads of international aid into Gaza, and scale to up to 150 truckloads once fully operational, according to US estimates.

The total project is expected to cost £240m.

Israel has said it will also open the port of Ashdod for ships carrying aid.

“The crew of RFA Cardigan Bay are central to the UK’s contribution to the multinational plan to greatly expand the flow of aid into Gaza,” added Mr Shapps.

Specialist British military planning teams have been embedded with the US operational HQ in Tampa, Florida, as well as in Cyprus for several weeks, to jointly develop the safest and most effective maritime route.

The UK Hydrographic Office has also shared analysis of the Gazan shore with US planners to develop the pier.

The A&P Group won a £239m Future In-Service Support (FISS) contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2018 to refit three Bay Class RFA’s Lyme Bay, Cardigan Bay and Mounts Bay, along with RFA Argus and the hydrographic ocean survey vessel HMS Scott at Falmouth.