Aid delivered to Gaza from newly repaired US-built pier, US military says

WASHINGTON – The first aid from a US-built pier arrived in Gaza on Saturday as storm damage required repairs to the project, the US military said, relaunching an effort to bring supplies to Palestinians by sea that had been plagued by problems.

The pier built by the US military was only operational for about a week before being destroyed by strong winds and rough seas on May 25th. A damaged section was reconnected to the beach in Gaza on Friday after being repaired at an Israeli port.

About 1.1 million pounds (492 metric tons) of humanitarian aid was delivered to Gaza through the dock on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said. said in a statement. He reiterated that no US military personnel landed in Gaza. The US Agency for International Development works with the UN World Food Program and its humanitarian partners in Gaza to distribute food and other aid from the US-operated dock.

The deliveries took place on the same day that Israel mounted a heavy air and ground attack robbery that rescued four hostages, who was captured by Hamas during the October 7 attack that launched the war in Gaza. At least 210 Palestinians, including children, were killed, a Gaza health official said.

Pushing back against social media claims, U.S. Central Command said in a tweet that neither the pier nor any of its equipment, personnel or other assets were used in the Israeli operation. It noted that Israel used an area south of the pier “to safely return the hostages.”

“The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was created for a single purpose: to help transport additional and urgently needed life-saving assistance to Gaza,” the US military said.

USAID said in a separate statement that no aid workers were involved in the Israeli operation.

“Aid workers in Gaza operate in extremely difficult and unsafe conditions and must be protected,” the agency said in an email. “Humanitarian workers operate under the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.”

The relief movement across the pier brings back online a way to get desperately needed food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians trapped by the eight-month-old baby. Israel-Hamas War. Israeli restrictions on land crossings and fighting have greatly limited the flow of food and other vital supplies into the territory.

Damage to the pier was the last hurdle for the project and the persistent struggle to get food to hungry Palestinians. Three US service members were injured, one seriously, and four ships ran aground due to rough seas.

Early efforts to bring aid from the docks to the Gaza Strip were also halted as crowds invaded a convoy of trucks that aid agencies used to transport the food, unloading much of it before it could reach a UN warehouse. Authorities responded by altering travel routes and aid began to reach those in need.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Friday that lessons learned from that initial week of operations left him confident that greater amounts of aid could be delivered now.

He said the goal was to get 1 million pounds of food and other supplies through the dock to Gaza every two days. To date, around 3.5 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been delivered via the sea route, Central Command said on Saturday.

Relief agencies pressured Israel to reopen land routes that could bring all the aid needed. Israel says it allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through a checkpoint in the south and pointed the finger at the UN for not distributing aid. The UN says it is often unable to recover aid due to the security situation.

UN agencies have warned that more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of hunger by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.

President Joe Biden’s administration has said from the beginning that the pier was not meant to be a total solution and that any help helps.

Biden, a Democrat, announced his plan for the US military to build a pier during his State of the Union address in early March, and the military said it would take about 60 days to get it up and running. It took a little longer than planned, with the first trucks transporting aid to the Gaza Strip rolling across the pier on May 17.

The initial cost was estimated at $320 million, but the Pentagon said last week that the price had dropped to $230 million, due to contributions from Britain and because the cost of hiring trucks and other equipment was lower than expected. .