Humanitarian aid trucks began landing in Gaza early Friday morning via a temporary pier built by the U.S. military, marking the first time aid has been sent by sea to the enclave in two months. But the new shipments of food and other supplies fall far short of what humanitarian groups say is needed to address Gaza's staggering levels of hunger and poverty.
A day earlier, the U.S. military announced it had secured a floating pier and causeway on Gaza's coast, a key step toward completing a maritime corridor announced by the Pentagon in March. U.S. officials and international aid groups say maritime transport complements, not replaces, land-based transport.
The U.S. military said Friday that no U.S. troops had entered Gaza, stressing that it was only providing logistical support to deliver supplies donated by a number of countries and organizations.
The war-torn territory, home to 2.2 million civilians, is more reliant than ever on humanitarian aid. Infiltrators were already severely limited by the devastation caused by seven months of Israeli shelling, strict Israeli inspections, and restrictions on border crossings. And over the past week and a half, since Israel launched a military offensive around the city of Rafah, the flow of goods through the mainland crossing point in southern Gaza has decreased only slightly.
Aid agencies continued to report dire conditions in Gaza. “We have never seen anything like this anywhere on earth,” Save the Children US President and CEO Janti Soeripto told The New York Times on Friday.
Israel has come under pressure from the Biden administration and other allies to take further steps to ease aid entry, with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken saying this week that recent improvements in relief delivery have been linked to the fighting in and around Rafah. warned that it was being damaged by
More than 630,000 Gazans have fled Rafah since Israel launched its military offensive on Rafah on May 6, according to the United Nations' main agency supporting Palestinians. Many people have taken refuge in the central city of Deir al-Balah, where the United Nations agency known as UNRWA said on social media that conditions were now “deplorable and intolerably overcrowded.” .
This week, top diplomats from 13 countries, including all members of the Group of Seven Industrialized Democracies except the United States, said in a joint letter, a copy of which was seen by The New York Times, that Israel called for “urgent action.” said that it should be taken. to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The letter, addressed to Israel's foreign minister, urges Israeli authorities to expand aid into the territory, take “concrete actions” to protect civilians and work toward a “sustainable ceasefire.” I'm asking you to.
At a hearing Friday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, lawyers representing Israel defended the military operation in Rafah as “limited and localized” and the judge ruled that Israel's actions in Gaza He argued that we should not try to limit the
The hearing at the court, the United Nations' highest judicial body, is part of a lawsuit filed by South Africa in December accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In late January, a court ordered Israel to take further steps to prevent acts of genocide, but the main case over whether genocide is being committed is not expected to be heard until next year.
Last week, South Africa asked a judge to issue an emergency order aimed at preventing large-scale civilian casualties in Rafah. South African lawyers argued in court Thursday that Israel's Operation Rafah was “the final step in the destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian people.”
On Friday, Israel's deputy attorney general for international law, Gilad Noam, reiterated Israel's vehement denial that it is committing genocide in Gaza. He said Israeli authorities were working to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid and protect civilians amid heavy fighting across the enclave, including Rafah.
“Israel is taking steps to deal with the very complex situation that this situation presents,” Noem told the judges. “Therefore, there was no large-scale attack on Rafah, but rather a limited, localized operation predicated on evacuation efforts and support for humanitarian operations.''
The Israeli military said it was working with the U.S. military to support the temporary pier project as a “top priority.”
The supplies that began arriving Friday are just a fraction of what Gaza needs, including food bars for 11,000 people, therapeutic food for 7,200 malnourished children, and 30,000 It was a hygiene kit for humans. The British government announced that it had sent 8,400 temporary shelters made of plastic sheeting.
“Further support will be provided in the coming weeks, but we know that the sea route is not the only solution,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear where or when aid would be delivered within the enclave. In a statement, the U.N. World Food Program said it would handle the logistics of aid arriving from the docks in the Gaza Strip, including coordinating trucks, supervising the loading of supplies, dispatching them to warehouses and handing them over to “humanitarian partners.”
Pentagon officials said the initial goal was to deliver aid by about 90 maritime trucks each day, but that number would increase to about 150 once the operation reached capacity. Before the war began last October, about 500 trucks loaded with goods and aid arrived in Gaza every day.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke about the maritime corridor in a telephone conversation with Israeli Defense Secretary Job Gallant on Thursday, according to the Pentagon. Austin stressed the need to “surge” humanitarian aid to Gaza through land border crossings in addition to piers, the ministry said.
Lt. Gen. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of Central Command, said the pier only complements the flow of aid by land and that it is “the most efficient and effective route to move the necessary amount of aid.” He emphasized that there is.
One of the Gaza Strip's two main aid borders, Rafah on the border with Egypt, has been closed since Israel launched a military operation against Hamas fighters in the Strip. Last week, Israel closed a second major intersection in Kerem Shalom after a nearby Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers. The intersection has since reopened, Israel said.
In mid-March, aid organization World Central Kitchen built a temporary pier to deliver aid to Gaza by sea for the first time in nearly 20 years. But those efforts were abruptly halted in early April after an Israeli attack killed seven of the group's employees.
