LARNACA, Cyprus. Thousands of tons of food, medicine and others Aid piled up on a war-torn Gaza beach It is not reaching those who need it because of the dire security situation and lawlessness on the ground, a US aid official said Wednesday.
Truckers get caught in the crossfire or have their loads seized by marauding “gang-like” groups, said Doug Strope of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The sense of despair gripping ordinary Palestinians is only compounded by the combination of Gaza being an active combat zone and a prevailing “general sense of lawlessness,” Stropes told The Associated Press.
The security “that is needed for humanitarian workers to work is what is really lacking right now,” the USAID official added.
The comments are the latest amid international criticism of Israel’s campaign against Hamas as Gaza faces severe and widespread hunger. The eight-month war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and the people there are now totally dependent on aid.
The war was caused by Hamas attack on October 7 in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Since then, Israel’s ground offensives and bombings have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the report. territory. Ministry of Healthwhich does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
More than 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced. Palestinians in Gaza rely heavily on U.N. aid, which has only arrived slowly after Israel in early May expanded its offensive toward Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, closing a major land crossing and delaying deliveries. from another.
Meanwhile, the UN food agency has suspended the delivery of aid from a dock built in the United States linked to the Gaza coast due to security concerns after the Israeli military appeared to use the area in a hostage rescue on June 8.
The World Food Program is currently reviewing security around the beach area so deliveries can resume “very soon,” Stropes said.
Since June 25, ships have delivered nearly 7,000 metric tons (7,716 US tons) of humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus to Gaza through the pier, but only 1,000 metric tons (1,102 US tons) have arrived so far. to the Palestinians. The rest is stored on a stretch of beach next to the pier, he said.
Scenes of desperate people haphazardly grabbing what they can from trucks and alleged “gang-like activity” in which looting has become “more organized and systemic” are undermining relief efforts, he added.
Still, aid donated by the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and other European countries continues to be sent to Gaza from the Cypriot port of Larnaca to the pier.
On Wednesday, the US Navy ship MV Cape Trinity was being loaded with hundreds of pallets of aid carried on board by trucks passing through scanners inspected by both Cypriot and Israeli customs officials. U.S. military officials said no contraband of any kind has been identified among the shipment so far.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Wednesday during a visit to Athens that 96% of Gaza residents “suffer from conditions that cannot be accepted humanely,” according to a report by food analysis agency Integrated Classification. of Food Safety Phases.
In Cyprus, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos acknowledged the difficulties of the maritime corridor, a complex “megaproject” from Larnaca, across the Mediterranean Sea, to the dock in Gaza, not previously tested on this scale anywhere else.
“There is no alternative, inaction or inertia in this type of situation is not an option,” Kombos told reporters.
The US ambassador to Cyprus, Julie Fisher, said the pier was built because of the urgency of getting food and medicine to Gaza.
“Last month alone, we know that assistance that passed through this sea corridor reached one million Palestinians in Gaza,” Fisher said after speaking with Kombos. “It certainly has challenges. We also know that it is making a difference. “We know we can do more.”
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Associated Press senior video producer Thedora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.
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