Friday, May 17, 2024

First humanitarian aid reaches Gaza from temporary pier built by US

Our Foreign Staff
Fri, May 17, 2024

The Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver humanitarian aid, on the Gaza coast - US Central Command

The first trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza began moving ashore on Friday via the temporary pier built by the United States.

The trucks drove off the pier at about 9am local time, the US military’s Central Command said on Friday.

No US troops went ashore in Gaza, it added.

“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature, and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organisations,” it said.

This is a developing story and will be updated


What to know about how much the aid from a US pier project will help Gaza

ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Updated Thu, May 16, 2024


A ship is seen off the coast of Gaza near a U.S.-built floating pier that will be used to facilitate aid deliveries, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 16, 2024.
 (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S.-built pier is in place to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, but no one will know if the new route will work until a steady stream of deliveries begins reaching starving Palestinians.

The trucks that will roll off the pier project installed Thursday will face intensified fighting, Hamas threats to target any foreign forces and uncertainty about whether the Israeli military will ensure that aid convoys have access and safety from attack by Israeli forces.

Even if the sea route performs as hoped, U.S, U.N. and aid officials caution, it will bring in a fraction of the aid that's needed to the embattled enclave.

Here's a look at what's ahead for aid arriving by sea:

WILL THE SEA ROUTE END THE CRISIS IN GAZA?

No, not even if everything with the sea route works perfectly, American and international officials say.

U.S. military officials hope to start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, growing quickly to about 150 trucks a day.

Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other aid officials have consistently said Gaza needs deliveries of more than 500 truckloads a day — the prewar average — to help a population struggling without adequate food or clean water during seven months of war between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has hindered deliveries of food, fuel and other supplies through land crossings since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel launched the conflict in October. The restrictions on border crossings and fighting have brought on a growing humanitarian catastrophe for civilians.

International experts say all 2.3 million of Gaza's people are experiencing acute levels of food insecurity, 1.1 million of them at “catastrophic” levels. Power and U.N. World Food Program Director Cindy McCain say north Gaza is in famine.

At that stage, saving the lives of children and others most affected requires steady treatment in clinical settings, making a cease-fire critical, USAID officials say.

At full operation, international officials have said, aid from the sea route is expected to reach a half-million people. That's just over one-fifth of the population.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR THE SEA ROUTE NOW?

The U.S. plan is for the U.N. to take charge of the aid once it's brought in. The U.N. World Food Program will then turn it over to aid groups for delivery.

U.N. officials have expressed concern about preserving their neutrality despite the involvement in the sea route by the Israeli military — one of the combatants in the conflict — and say they are negotiating that.

There are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food to those who need it most, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator for USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.

U.S. and international organizations including the U.S. government's USAID and the Oxfam, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee nonprofits say Israeli officials haven't meaningfully improved protections of aid workers since the military's April 1 attack that killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization.

Talks with the Israeli military “need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don’t think we’re there yet," Korde told reporters Thursday.

Meanwhile, fighting is surging in Gaza. It isn’t threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, Pentagon officials say, but they have made it clear that security conditions could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily.

The U.S. and Israel have developed a security plan for humanitarian groups coming to a “marshaling yard” next to the pier to pick up the aid, said U.S. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command. USAID Response Director Dan Dieckhaus said aid groups would follow their own security procedures in distributing the supplies.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have moved into the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah as part of their offensive, preventing aid from moving through, including fuel.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that without fuel, delivery of all aid in Gaza can't happen.

WHAT'S NEEDED?

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, the U.N. and aid groups have pressed Israel to allow more aid through land crossings, saying that's the only way to ease the suffering of Gaza's civilians. They've also urged Israel's military to actively coordinate with aid groups to stop Israeli attacks on humanitarian workers.

“Getting aid to people in need into and across Gaza cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Thursday.

“To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza — and for that, we need access by land now,” Haq said.

U.S. officials agree that the pier is only a partial solution at best, and say they are pressing Israel for more.

WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?

Israel says it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says ongoing fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery.

Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza. It said a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods.

___

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Tara Copp in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.



US establishes Gaza pier to try to boost aid to hungry enclave

Reuters
Updated Thu, May 16, 2024 

Temporary floating pier anchored by the U.S. to boost aid deliveries to Gaza


(Reuters) - The United States anchored a temporary floating pier to a beach in Gaza on Thursday to boost aid deliveries. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the plan for the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to improve access for relief supplies into Gaza over land routes.

By opening a route to deliver aid by sea, the U.S. hopes to combat the humanitarian crisis that has put hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine. Below is a timeline of events leading to the arrival of the pier off Gaza.

March 7 - Biden says in his State of the Union speech the U.S. military will build a temporary port on Gaza's Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian aid by sea. The announcement came as he seeks to cool anger among many in his Democratic Party over his support for Israel in its offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, given the steep toll on civilians.

March 8 - The Pentagon says Biden's plan could take up to 60 days to become a reality and involve more than 1,000 American troops. Officials say a floating pier would be installed in place off Gaza and attached to land by a temporary causeway. Aid will be shipped to it from Cyprus where Israeli officials will inspect it, as they currently do at the land borders, to stop anything going into Gaza that they deem to have a possible military use.

April 3 - The U.S. State Department says an attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1 would not affect U.S. efforts to build the pier.

April 25 - A United Nations team in Gaza visiting the site for the pier and the staging area for maritime aid operations had to seek shelter in a bunker "for some time" after the area came under fire, a U.N. spokesperson says.

April 25 - The Pentagon says U.S. troops have begun construction of the pier off the coast of Gaza, as international officials warn of the risk of famine in northern Gaza. Concerns about the risk to American troops getting caught up in the Israel-Hamas war were underscored as news emerged of a mortar attack near the area where the pier will eventually touch ground. No U.S. forces were present, however, and Biden has ordered U.S. forces to not step foot on the Gaza shore.

April 29 - A U.S. defense official says cost estimate to build the pier has risen to $320 million, illustrating the massive scale of a construction effort.

May 1 - The Pentagon says the U.S. military has so far constructed over 50% of the pier, which has several different components. "The floating pier has been completely constructed and setup. The causeway is in progress," a spokesperson said.

May 2 - White House says the pier should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather hampering preparations.

May 3 - The U.S. military said it was temporarily pausing the offshore construction of the pier because of weather conditions and instead would continue building it at the Israeli port of Ashdod.

May 9 - The U.S. flagged vessel Sagamore carrying aid to be unloaded at the pier sets sail from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus in the morning.

May 15 - A British shipment of nearly 100 tonnes of aid has left Cyprus bound for the temporary pier, the British Foreign Office says.

May 15 - The U.S. military starts moving the pier towards the Gaza coast, a U.S. official says.

May 16 - The pier is anchored to a beach in Gaza.

(This story has been refiled to correct 'Work Central Kitchen' to 'World Central Kitchen', in paragraph 5)

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Don Durfee, William Maclean)

US military anchors pier to Gaza; aid expected within days

Brad Dress
Thu, May 16, 2024 


The U.S. military has finally anchored its new pier to the coast of Gaza, and officials are expected to soon begin delivery of crucial humanitarian aid to the besieged region.

The pier was completed earlier this month, but its anchoring was delayed by bad weather.

Officials are expected to begin delivering around 500 tons of humanitarian aid in the coming days, offering much-needed relief for Palestinian civilians who lack access to basic necessities including food and water as Israel carries on a war against militant group Hamas in Gaza.

In a press call, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, said the pier was successfully anchored to a beach in Gaza in the early morning hours on Thursday.

Cooper said there are “hundreds of tons of humanitarian assistance” immediately ready for distribution in the coming days.

“We’ve got thousands of tons in the pipeline,” he added.

Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator at the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said the pier would help address a “gap” in humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza.

“We’re at a point in time when we can’t spare any effort,” she said.

Aid distribution will begin at the island nation of Cyprus, where barges will bring in tons of assistance to a floating dock miles off the coast of Gaza. The aid will then be ferried to the pier on ships before being unloaded off the shore for distribution.

Around 1,000 U.S. troops are taking part in the humanitarian aid mission, but Washington has been firm there will be no boots on the ground. Instead, they will work closely with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the United Nations and humanitarian aid groups to get the aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Some Republicans have raised concerns about how the U.S. military can stay out of harm’s way, especially after the area near the port on the shore was attacked last month.

But Cooper said the U.S. military has worked closely with the IDF to come up with a security plan, and that Israel has been a supportive partner in the process.

“We worked very closely with the IDF to develop a series of protocols,” he said, saying they had a “high level of confidence” in the mission.

US military pier starts moving towards Gaza

Reuters
Wed, May 15, 2024 




US military pier starts moving towards Gaza
Construction of JLOTS Pier in Mediterranean

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has started moving a pier towards the Gaza coast, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, one of the last steps before the launch of a maritime port promised by President Joe Biden to speed the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

The U.S. military opted to pre-assemble the maritime pier at Israeli port of Ashdod earlier this month due to weather conditions at the Gaza site where it will now be installed.

Officials hope the pier can be anchored to the coast of Gaza and aid can start flowing in the coming days.

"Earlier today, components of the temporary pier ... along with military vessels involved in its construction, began moving from the Port of Ashdod towards Gaza, where it will be anchored to the beach to assist in the delivery of international humanitarian aid," a U.S. official said.

A British shipment of nearly 100 tonnes of aid has left Cyprus bound for a new temporary pier in Gaza, the British Foreign Office said on Wednesday.

The U.S. military effort comes more than six months after Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel has launched a relentless assault on Gaza, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say, in a bombardment that has reduced much of the enclave to a wasteland and triggered U.N. warnings of looming famine.

Over time, the civilian toll from the Israeli offensive has triggered global protests and strained relations with Washington, Israel's biggest backer.

Israel has sought to demonstrate it is not blocking aid to Gaza. Although U.S. officials and aid groups say some progress has been made, they warn it is insufficient.

Dan Dieckhaus, the response director at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters earlier on Wednesday Israel still has more work to do to address concerns about the killing of aid workers in Gaza.

"Overall we are still not satisfied. And we won't be satisfied as long as we continue to see aid worker deaths and injuries," Dieckhaus said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Editing by William Maclean)

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