UN warns US sea route for Gaza aid may fail unless conditions improve
The UN World Food Programme is warning that the new US pier project for delivering aid to Gaza may fail unless Israel starts providing the conditions the humanitarian groups need to operate.
Tuesday’s warning came after a chaotic launch to the $320m US project ended with much of the aid looted and one Palestinian man dead.
Steve Taravella, a spokesperson for the UN food agency, told The Associated Press that, “Unless we receive the necessary clearance and coordination to use additional routes, this operation may not be successful.”
“Without sufficient supplies entering Gaza, these issues will continue to surface. Community acceptance and trust that this is not a one-off event are essential for this operation’s success,” he said.
Pentagon says none of the aid unloaded from US pier off coast of Gaza has been delivered to broader Palestinian population
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/politics/us-gaza-pier-aid-not-delivered/index.html
None of the aid that has been unloaded from the temporary pier the US constructed off the coast of Gaza has been delivered to the broader Palestinian population, as the US works with the UN and Israel to identify safe delivery routes inside the enclave, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
Several desperate Gazans intercepted trucks delivering aid from the pier over the weekend, leading the UN to suspend the delivery operations until the logistical challenges are resolved.
The US is working with Israel and the United Nations to establish “alternative routes” for the safe delivery of the 569 tons of aid transported to Gaza since last week, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.
Asked whether any of the aid has been delivered to the people of Gaza, Ryder said, “As of today, I do not believe so.” He added that aid had been held in an assembly area on shore, but as of Tuesday had begun getting moved to warehouses for distribution throughout Gaza as alternative routes have been established.
A US official told CNN that the Defense Department and UN are still working to determine how much aid can be held at he staging area inside Gaza at any given time. The amount of aid getting to the Gaza shoreline from its initial staging area in Cyprus has also fallen short of initial Pentagon estimates.
Since Friday, more than 569 metric tons of humanitarian assistance have been delivered through the temporary pier, called JLOTS, or Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, to the shore of Gaza to be distributed by humanitarian partners, Ryder said. But Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command, said last week that the US hoped to initially transport 500 tons of aid per day via the pier, and scale up as time went on.
That's some small trucks if 500 tons are 90 trucks, 6 tons per truck.
