A week after U.S. troops and allies set up a makeshift pier on Gaza's beaches, Pentagon planners are facing the logistical nightmare that critics warned the project would entail.
The Pentagon had expected humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza via the pier by now, but officials acknowledged this week that little aid has reached Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. The U.N. World Food Programme said several trucks were looted on the way to its warehouses, and distribution continues to be delayed due to the complexities of operating a pier project in a war zone.
As expected, problems have arisen late in the operation. Looting of aid trucks continues, forcing the World Food Programme to suspend operations for two days, officials said. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Tuesday suspended food distribution in Rafah, citing deteriorating security conditions. UNRWA added that it has not received medical supplies for 10 days because of closures and disruptions at the Rafah-Kerem Shalom border crossing.
The project was always expected to be difficult. For one, White House policy does not allow US troops to be on the ground in Gaza, meaning the Pentagon can start the mission but not finish it. One military analyst likened the situation to having a car with an engine but no wheels.
As the pier project continues to struggle to make progress, the situation in Gaza is worsening by the day. More than 34,000 people have been killed and 77,000 injured, according to Gaza health officials. The death toll is only likely to rise as Israel expands its operations in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant of “denying humanitarian supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict situations and instigating starvation as a weapon of war,” a charge Israel strongly denies.
But aid groups say many in Gaza are suffering from extreme hunger. Palestinians have forcibly taken aid from trucks, something UN officials say reflects the desperation of people trying to feed themselves and their families. Aid groups and the UN also blame black market dealers for the hunger crisis, who are seizing supplies and selling them at inflated prices.
UNRWA and U.S. officials say it would be extremely difficult to secure the convoy through the crowds without a police escort.
The pier construction project is an attempt by the Biden administration to alleviate humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder on Tuesday described the process as a “crawl, walk and run approach.”
President Biden announced the project in his State of the Union address in March amid widespread warnings that Gaza was on the brink of famine. The Pentagon, with the help of about 1,000 U.S. troops, built and assembled the pier next to an Army ship off the coast, U.S. officials said. The pier connects to central Gaza. Ambulances began landing on Friday.
But so far, the operation has fallen short of its goal of 90 trucks a day, eventually ramping up to 150. The World Food Programme said 10 trucks arrived at the warehouse on Friday, but 11 of 16 were looted on Saturday. The operation was halted for two days; 17 trucks arrived on Tuesday and 27 on Wednesday.
The Department of Defense is calling the project “Joint Logistics Alongside Coasts,” or JLOTS, and is using its capabilities to provide humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Kuwait and Haiti.
Military officials involved in past operations say getting humanitarian aid to those in need is a bigger challenge than building the infrastructure.
“It's one thing to set up a jetty and get supplies from there to shore,” Rabbi Torbay, executive director of the aid group Project Hope, said in an interview. “It's a whole other thing to get the logistics in place to get aid to where it's most needed, and that's where the lack of planning and coordination becomes an issue.”
Retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton was in Somalia in 1993, when U.S. troops were setting up jetties to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the war. About four Army light infantry battalions, totaling 2,000 soldiers, were there to help transport the aid, General Eaton said in an interview.
“A ship with humanitarian supplies arrives at the port, which we have full control over, and then we load it onto trucks,” he said. “Then we put armed forces, American soldiers, on the vehicles to protect the drivers.”
“The supplies arrived in a protected environment, were loaded in a protected environment and were transported to their final point of use in a protected environment,” he added.
That is not happening in Gaza.
The World Food Program warned on Tuesday that the pier project could fail unless Israel does more to ensure the safe distribution of aid. The agency suspended deliveries from the pier after a truck loaded with aid was looted, leaving a Palestinian man dead.
Some food and commercial goods have been coming into Gaza recently, but few in the war-torn territory can afford them, with months of fighting leaving them without a regular income. The cash crunch makes aid to impoverished Gazans even more crucial.
World Food Program spokesman Abeer Etefa said the key to breaking the aid impasse was getting permission from Israel to send supplies along alternative routes. The new routes were used on Tuesday and Wednesday, and convoys reached their destinations without incident, Etefa said.
The initial failure of the pier project fueled criticism among some diplomats that the plan was too expensive and inefficient.
Pentagon officials have privately complained that the Biden administration came up with plans to build the pier with little consultation with the military, which builds and operates it in the Mediterranean. Defense officials have scrambled to implement the plan after estimating it would take two months to complete.
Aid groups say that even if all the problems are solved, shipping by sea is less efficient than by land. Even if the project meets its goal of 150 trucks a day, the volume of food and other supplies aid groups say is needed for war-torn populations.
Aid workers say lengthy truck inspections, limited opening hours and protests by Israelis have slowed deliveries at the border crossing. Israeli authorities deny they are hindering the flow of aid and blame the United Nations for the backlog.
“There is still no established process or structure for delivering aid to the Gaza Strip,” said Gen. Joseph L. Votel, a former commander of U.S. Central Command.
“This is the responsibility of international aid organizations and the Israel Defense Forces,” he said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “This remains a war zone.”