U.S. resumes delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza via repaired pier

Much-needed aid was delivered to Gaza from a recently repaired building Pier built in the USAUS Central Command announced Saturday, following problems that plagued the effort to get supplies to Palestinians by sea.

The pier built by the American military was only operational for about a week before it was destroyed by high winds and rough seas on May 25. The damaged section was reconnected to the beach in Gaza on Friday after undergoing repairs at an Israeli port.

About 1.1. Millions of pounds of aid were delivered on Saturday via the pier, CENTCOM said in a statement. According to the agency, a total of £3.5 million in aid has been delivered since the pier opened in mid-May.

Delivery arrived on the same day Israel mounted a heavy air and ground attack in Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza, who rescued four hostages who had been taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack that launched the war in Gaza. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said at least 210 Palestinians were killed during the attack and more than 400 were injured.

Video circulating online Saturday shows an Israel Defense Forces helicopter taking off from the beach with the US pier in the background. Two US officials told CBS News that the U.S. pier it was not used in the IDF operation. A US official explained that the helicopter landed south of the facility, on a beach, but not within the isolated pier area.

“The pier facilities were not used in today’s hostage rescue operation in Gaza. An area south of the facility was used to safely return the hostages to Israel,” a US official said. “Any statement to the contrary is false. The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was created for a single purpose: to help bring the most urgently needed life-saving assistance to Gaza.”

In a statement released on Saturday, US Central Command reiterated that “the pier’s facilities, including its equipment, personnel and assets, were not used in today’s hostage rescue operation in Gaza.”

Redress brings back to the Internet a way to get desperately needed food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians trapped by the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli restrictions on land crossings and fighting have greatly limited the flow of food and other vital supplies into the territory.

Damage to the pier was the latest obstacle to the project and the persistent struggle to get food to hungry Palestinians. Three US service members were injured, one seriously, and four ships ran aground due to rough seas.

Early efforts to get aid from the docks to the Gaza Strip were halted when mobs stormed a convoy of trucks that aid agencies were using to transport the food, removing the cargo from many of them before they could reach a UN warehouse. Authorities responded by altering travel routes and aid began to reach those in need.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Friday that lessons learned from that initial week of operations left him confident that greater amounts of aid could be delivered now.

He said the goal was to get 1 million pounds of food and other supplies through the dock to Gaza every two days. Before the bridge failed during the storm, more than 2.4 million pounds of aid had been delivered, Pentagon officials said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is working with the United Nations World Food Program and its humanitarian partners working in Gaza to distribute food, high-nutrition emergency treatment for hungry children and other aid via the sea route.

Relief agencies pressured Israel to reopen land routes that could bring all the aid needed. Israel says it allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through a checkpoint in the south and pointed the finger at the UN for not distributing aid. The UN says it is often unable to recover aid due to the security situation.

UN agencies have warned that more than a million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of famine by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.

President Biden’s administration has said from the beginning that the pier was not meant to be a total solution and that any amount of aid helps.

Biden announced his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address in early March, and the military said it would take about 60 days to install and make it operational. It took a little longer than planned, with the first trucks carrying aid to the Gaza Strip arriving at the docks on 17 May.

The initial cost was estimated at $320 million, but the Pentagon said last week that the price had dropped to $230 million, due to contributions from Britain and because the cost of hiring trucks and other equipment was lower than expected. .