UN food program agrees to help distribute aid to Gaza using sea route

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has agreed to deliver aid to residents in Gaza when the US finishes a pier to transport aid by sea, US officials said on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed to the AP that it will work with the WFP to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea.

“This is a complex operation that requires coordination between many partners and our conversations are ongoing. Across Gaza, the safety of humanitarian actors is critical to the delivery of assistance, and we continue to advocate for measures that will provide greater assurances to humanitarians,” USAID said in a statement, according to the AP.

U.S. and WFP officials are working on how they can deliver aid to Palestinian civilians “in an independent, neutral and impartial manner,” according to the AP.

President Biden announced construction of the pier during his State of the Union address last month. He has faced growing criticism for his handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, especially after a recent Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, which Biden said left him “outraged and heartbroken.”

“Incidents like yesterday simply shouldn’t happen,” Biden said the day after the attack. “Israel also has not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to decomplicate its military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations in order to avoid civilian casualties.”

WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said earlier this month that people in Gaza were on the brink of starvation.

“We are literally on the verge of reaching the edge — the precipice — with hunger and not being able to recover from it,” McCain said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.

The Associated Press contributed.

The Hill reached out to USAID and WFP.