WASHINGTON – The director of the UN World Food Program said on Sunday that the program has “paused” the distribution of humanitarian aid from a pier built in the USA off Gaza, saying she was “concerned about the safety of our people” after what was one of the deadliest days of the war there.
Saturday saw an Israeli military attack that freed four hostages but it left 274 Palestinians and an Israeli commando dead and, Cindy McCain said, two of the WFP warehouses in Gaza were “hit by rockets” and one employee was injured.
The announcement of the UN pause on Sunday appears to be the latest setback for the US sea route, created to try to bring more aid for the starving people of Gaza.
The US Agency for International Development described the pause as a step to allow for a security review by the humanitarian community in Gaza. USAID works with the World Food Program and its humanitarian partners in Gaza to distribute food and other aid from the US-operated pier.
Completed in mid-May, the U.S. pier was operational for only about a week before being disabled by storm damage for two weeks. After repairs, it was back in operation Saturday, bringing 1.1 million pounds (492 metric tons) of food and other aid, before McCain said his agency was halting its humanitarian work there.
The UN agency did not provide further details, including how long the pause would last. PMA spokespeople did not respond to requests for more details.
Asked about the pier operation during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” McCain said, “Right now we’re on pause.”
“I am concerned about the safety of our people following yesterday’s incident,” McCain said, without elaborating. “We too, two of our warehouses, the warehouse complex was bombed yesterday.”
“We have retreated for the moment,” she said, and we want “to make sure we are in safe conditions and on safe ground before we restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We are doing…everything we can in the north and south.”
USAID said in a statement to the Associated Press that it was working with other U.S. government officials and humanitarian groups in Gaza “to ensure that aid can resume movement safely and effectively following the completion of the security review that the community humanitarian work is currently being carried out”.
President Joe Biden announced in March In his State of the Union address, he instructed the U.S. military to establish the temporary pier. The U.S. project was intended to bring a limited amount of aid to Gaza, where Israeli restrictions on land crossings and fighting have brought more than 1 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents close to famine.
Saturday’s return to operation of the US pier project came on the same day that Israel mounted a heavy air and ground attack robbery that rescued four hostageswho was captured by Hamas during the October 7 attack that launched the war in Gaza.
Pushing back against social media claims following Israeli military operation, US Central Command said in a tweet Saturday 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.”
A fundamental principle of humanitarian groups states that their work must be independent of the mission of combatants in a conflict zone, to prevent aid operations and aid workers from becoming targets.
USAID said in a separate statement Saturday that no aid workers were involved in the Israeli operation.
Speaking of the “rapid fire” at PMA warehouses, McCain said on Sunday that one employee was injured but “everyone else is fine.”
“This is why a ceasefire is necessary. This is why we need to end this,” so that aid from his program and other organizations can flow to Gaza “on a large scale.”
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Sara Burnett contributed.
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