The first humanitarian aid arrived in Gaza by sea via a US-built floating pier on Friday as shipments over land have frequently been impeded by Israeli restrictions and protests by members of the country’s far right.
The new aid route has drawn criticism from aid groups, however, that say it is costly and limited in capacity to help Gazans facing acute food shortages, compared with far more efficient land routes.
The arrival follows two months of work by US forces at a cost of about $320mn and forms part of a larger maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza that aims to help send more aid to the besieged territory.
US Central Command said it was an “ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature” and would involve supplies donated by countries and aid groups.
A senior UN official, who requested anonymity, last month labelled the project a “wasteful distraction”. “There are roads, there are border crossings — there’s [already] aid waiting outside Gaza,” the official said.
Before Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war, Gaza received about 500 trucks of aid per day, a number that has fallen to about 200 per day over the past six months, according to UN and Israeli military figures.
The pier route has capacity to handle 150 trucks a day. The UN estimates that Gaza needs as many as 1,000 trucks of aid per day for several weeks to overcome the deep shortage of food, medicine and other critical supplies that has built up in recent months.
US President Joe Biden announced the floating pier initiative in March, amid deep concern over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza after months of conflict, including warnings by aid groups of a population on the brink of famine.
The US state department said on Thursday it was “deeply concerned about the reports indicating worsening conditions and imminent famine in Gaza”.
“Israel needs to do more to urgently provide sustained and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance to enter both northern and southern Gaza,” it added.
Aid sent to Gaza via the maritime route is delivered and inspected in Cyprus, then shipped to a floating platform off the coast of the enclave and then shuttled aboard US Army vessels to the pier and causeway attached to the Gazan shoreline.
Pentagon officials have made clear that no American troops will be present on the ground in Gaza, with the World Food Program expected to take responsibility for distributing aid inside the territory.
The Israeli military has said that it will help secure the pier — known officially as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore — both at sea and at the docking point just south of Gaza City.
“This is a top priority in our operations, to support this humanitarian mission,” Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said on Thursday.
The entry of aid into the Palestinian enclave has been slowed by Israeli inspections at border crossings, a lack of security for distribution within war-torn Gaza, and far-right Israeli protesters who oppose any aid to Gaza and are seeking to block humanitarian convoys from reaching the territory.
The Israeli military insists that the pier would not aim to replace other routes, but would be an additional entry point for aid, especially to devastated north Gaza. Israel recently opened two new overland border crossings to the north of the territory after months of delays.
Air drops by countries including the US, United Arab Emirates and Jordan have also continued, but with negligible impact, according to international aid groups.
Overall humanitarian supplies to Gaza have faced renewed disruption over the past week after Israel launched a military offensive into the southern city of Rafah earlier this month, seizing the key border crossing with Egypt.
Cairo in turn has stopped all aid shipments from its territory, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. On Thursday, more than 350 trucks entered Gaza, the vast majority either from Israel directly or the Palestinian private sector in the West Bank.
The main Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza has also been sporadically shut because of Hamas rocket fire, which last week claimed the lives of four Israeli soldiers.
On Thursday night, a truck believed to be carrying aid to Gaza was stopped on a West Bank highway and set on fire by far-right Israeli protesters.
Three Israeli soldiers were injured while attempting to provide medical care to the driver and disperse people, said the Israeli military. Israeli media reported that it was at least the fourth such attack on a Gaza aid convoy crossing Israeli territory from Jordan or the West Bank since late last week.
Far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, demanding “clarifications” about aid being supplied directly from the West Bank and Israel for Gaza. He claimed the supply of aid via this route violated previous cabinet decisions.
“We must defeat Hamas — renewing trade with Gaza is not the way,” Smotrich wrote.
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