The U.S. military on Thursday anchored a temporary dock on the Gaza coast to establish an entry point for humanitarian aid into the enclave, where the flow of supplies across the land border has been restricted. basically stopped since the Israeli invasion of Rafah began last week.
U.S. Central Command said aid will be loaded onto trucks and will begin arriving “in the coming days.” in a statement Thursday morning. U.S. officials said last week that the floating dock and causeway were complete, but weather conditions had delayed installation.
Israel has long opposed the establishment of a seaport in Gaza, saying it would pose a security threat.As the humanitarian crisis in the region escalated in recent months, with severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic needs, the U.S. military launched a announced a plan Build a temporary dock to transport aid across the Mediterranean.
A US ship, the USS Sagamore, loaded with humanitarian aid. Departing from Cyprus to Gaza Last week, the aid was loaded onto a smaller vessel that had been waiting to be installed at the dock. The U.N. will receive the aid and oversee its distribution in Gaza, according to Central Command, which said U.S. troops would not set foot in the area.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the committee chairman, said that over the next two days, the U.S. military and humanitarian groups aim to load three to five trucks from the terminal and send them to Gaza to test the process established by the Pentagon . Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“It may take another 24 hours to make sure everything is ready,” he told reporters on Thursday on a flight to Brussels, where he was attending a NATO meeting. “We’ve got force protection in place, we’ve got contract truckers on the other side, and we’ve got fuel for those truckers as well.”
Officials said the Pentagon hopes terminal operations can provide enough assistance for about 90 trucks per day, with that number increasing to 150 trucks when the system reaches full operating capacity.
At a press conference on Thursday, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said supporting the temporary dock project was a “top priority.” He said the Israeli Navy and the 99th Division support this effort by sea and land respectively.
Aid groups say Gaza has been devastated after seven months of Israeli bombardment, with strict Israeli inspections and restrictions on crossings limiting the amount of aid entering Gaza. Israel insists the restrictions are necessary to ensure weapons or supplies do not fall into the hands of Hamas.
The United Nations World Food Program said on Wednesday it had not received any aid through Gaza’s southern Kerem Shalom crossing on its border with Israel since May 6, when Israeli forces began a military operation in the area near the city of Rafah.agency said in a statement Access to Rafah’s warehouses has been cut off due to the fighting and its food and fuel stocks will be depleted “within days”.
“The threat of famine in Gaza has never been greater,” the agency said, adding that Israel’s actions in Rafah severely hampered efforts to ease the humanitarian crisis in the enclave of 2.2 million people.
in a Wednesday briefingU.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Dan Dickhaus emphasized that maritime aid corridors are intended to supplement the delivery of supplies through land border crossings, not replace them.
The Pentagon has explain The terminal can transport up to 2 million meals per day.
An aid organization, World Central Kitchen, built a temporary dock In mid-March, aid was delivered to Gaza by sea for the first time in nearly two decades.But those efforts came to an abrupt halt in early April when the group’s seven workers Killed in Israeli attack.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmed and Helen Cooper Contributed reporting.
