In the week since the U.S. military and allies attached a temporary pier to the Gaza shoreline, Pentagon planners have come face to face with the logistical nightmare that critics had warned would accompany the endeavor.
The Defense Department predicted that a steady stream of humanitarian aid would be arriving in Gaza via the pier by now, but little relief has reached Palestinians in the besieged strip, officials acknowledged this week. Several trucks were looted as they made their way to a warehouse, the U.N. World Food Program said, and the complexity of operating the pier project in a war zone is continuing to slow distribution.
The problems, as expected, are on the back end of the operation. Looting of aid trucks has continued, officials said, and forced the World Food Program to suspend operations for two days. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, suspended food distribution in Rafah on Tuesday, citing lack of security. It added that it had not received any medical supplies for 10 days because of closures and disruptions at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings.
The project was always expected to be difficult. For one thing, White House policy does not allow U.S. troops to be on the ground in Gaza. So the Pentagon has the ability to start but not finish the mission, a situation one military analyst likened to having the engine of a car but not the wheels.
As the pier project struggles to get going, the situation in Gaza remains dire. More than 34,000 people have died and more than 77,000 have been wounded, according to health authorities in the territory. The number of casualties will only increase as Israel expands its operation in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday of causing “starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.” The Israelis denied the charges.
But many Gazans are experiencing immense hunger, aid groups say. Palestinians have forcibly taken aid from trucks, which U.N. officials have said reflects the desperation of people trying to feed themselves and their families. Aid groups and the United Nations have also blamed the hunger crisis on black marketers who have seized supplies to sell at inflated prices.
It is extremely difficult to deliver aid to distribution centers without police escorts to protect the convoys from swarms of people, UNRWA and U.S. officials say.
The pier project is the Biden administration’s attempt to alleviate some of the humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, described the process on Tuesday as a “crawl-walk-run approach.”
President Biden announced the project during his State of the Union address in March, amid warnings that Gaza was on the precipice of famine. The Pentagon built and assembled the pier…
2024-05-23 21:42:02
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