Washington – Trucks carrying much-needed aid for the Gaza Strip drove over one newly built temporary US floating pier entered the besieged enclave for the first time on Friday, as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hamper the access of food and other supplies.
The shipment is the first in an operation that U.S. military officials expect could see up to 150 truckloads per day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel invades the southern city of Rafah And his Seven-month offensive against Hamas rages on.
But the US and aid groups also warn that the pier project is not considered a replacement for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel Gaza needs. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day.
Released from US Central Command via Reuters
The success of the operation also remains weak due to the risk of militant attacks, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the trucks due to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. The Israeli offensive has since killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Hamas-led Health Ministry officials say, while hundreds of others have been killed in the West Bank.
The US military’s Central Command acknowledged the aid movement in a statement on Friday, saying first aid entered Gaza at 9 a.m. It said no American troops landed during the operation.
“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to provide additional assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza through a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature and involves aid donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations,” the command said.
Photos released Thursday by CENTCOM show relief supplies being lifted onto a ship at the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod.
Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley / US Army via AP
Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday. Hours later, the Pentagon said humanitarian aid would start flowing soon and that no backups were expected in the distribution process, which is coordinated by the United Nations.
Nurture critical care
However, the UN said fuel deliveries via land routes have virtually stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to get aid to the people of Gaza.
“We urgently need fuel,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq. “It doesn’t matter how the aid arrives, whether it is by sea or by land – without fuel the aid will not reach the people.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the issue of fuel deliveries comes up in all U.S. conversations with the Israelis. She also said the plan is to start slowly with the sea route and increase truck deliveries over time as they work the kinks out of the system.
Aid agencies say food is running low in southern Gaza and fuel is dwindling, while the US Agency for International Development and the World Food Program say famine has struck northern Gaza.
Israel claims it sets no limits on humanitarian access and blames the UN for delays in the distribution of goods entering Gaza. The UN says fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hampered deliveries. Israel also fears that Hamas will use the fuel in its fight against Israeli forces.
Ongoing challenges for aid delivery
Under pressure from the US, Israel has opened two border crossings in recent weeks to deliver aid to hard-hit northern Gaza. Israel has said a series of Hamas attacks on the main border crossing, Kerem Shalom, has disrupted the flow of goods. There have also been violent protests by Israelis disrupting aid shipments.
Israel recently has seized the main border crossing at Rafah in its attack on Hamas around that town on the Egyptian border, raising fears for the safety of civilians while cutting off the main aid access point into the Gaza Strip.
President Biden ordered the pier project, which is expected to cost $320 million. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.
U.S. officials said the first shipment totaled as much as 500 tons of aid. The US has worked closely with Israel on how to protect the ships and personnel working on the beach.
But there are still questions about how aid groups will operate safely in Gaza to distribute food, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Office of Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.
“There is a very unsafe working environment” and aid groups are still struggling to get permission for their planned movements in Gaza, Korde said.
The fears follow an Israeli attack last month killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers whose travel was coordinated with Israeli officials, and the deaths of other aid workers during the war.
Pentagon officials have made clear that security conditions will be closely monitored and could lead to a closure of the maritime route, even if only temporarily. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander at the U.S. Army’s Central Command, told reporters Thursday that “we are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved.”
The site has already been the target of mortar fire during construction, and Hamas has threatened to attack foreign forces “occupying” the Gaza Strip.
Mr Biden has made it clear that there will be no US troops on the ground in Gaza, so contractors from third countries will drive the trucks ashore. Cooper said that “the United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution to Gaza.”
The World Food Program will be the U.N. agency handling the aid, officials said.
Israeli forces are responsible for security on shore, but there are also two US Navy warships nearby that can protect US troops and others.
The aid for the sea route is collected and inspected in Cyprus, then loaded onto ships and taken about 200 miles to the large floating pier built by the US. There the pallets are transferred to the trucks that then drive onto the army boats. Once the trucks drop off the aid on shore, they immediately return to the boats.
