WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday that Israel will not be able to secure US$320 million in aid deliveries to Gaza if it does not begin to ensure the conditions necessary for humanitarian organizations to operate safely. announced that the new pier project may fail. The operation was halted for at least two days after a crowd looted an aid truck leaving the port, killing a Palestinian man.
WFP said deliveries were suspended on Sunday and Monday after most of the aid trucks had all their goods taken away on Saturday en route to warehouses in central Gaza. Emergency relief supplies transported by sea entered the besieged enclave on Friday.
The Pentagon said the movement of aid from the port safe zone resumed on Tuesday, but the United Nations said it was not aware of any supplies being delivered on Tuesday.
The U.N. food agency is currently reassessing logistics and security measures and looking for alternative routes within Gaza, spokesman Abeer Etefa said. WFP is coordinating the delivery in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Of the 16 aid trucks that left the safe zone on Saturday, only five arrived at their destination warehouses with their cargo intact, Steve Talavera, another WFP spokesperson, told The Associated Press. He said 11 other trucks were ambushed by the crowd and arrived laden with cargo.
“Unless sufficient supplies flow into Gaza, these problems will continue to surface. Community acceptance and trust that this is not a one-off event is critical to the success of this operation,” Talavera said. said in an email. “We have raised this issue with stakeholders and reiterated our request for alternative roads to facilitate the delivery of aid. Unless we receive the necessary permits and arrangements to use additional routes, This operation may not be successful.”
WFP said on Tuesday it had suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing shortages and deteriorating security.
President Joe Biden has ordered the U.S. military to build a floating pier to transport food and other critical supplies. All 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been in severe food insecurity since Israel's war with Hamas began in October due to Israeli restrictions on transportation through its land border and full-scale fighting, and the U.S. and UN officials say famine is widespread in the northern Gaza Strip.
Authorities have provided limited details about what happened on Saturday's aid convoy. But an Associated Press video shows Israeli armored vehicles driving along a road along the coast, followed by aid trucks moving down the road. Civilians watching from the roadside gradually began to climb onto the aid truck and dump aid onto the people below. Many people then appear to have crushed the aid truck and its supplies.
At one point, people are seen pushing a cart through the crowd carrying an incapacitated man with a chest wound. A local morgue later confirmed to The Associated Press that the man had been shot and died from a rifle. At another point, gunshots can be heard and some members of the crowd are seen ducking behind aid boxes for cover.
It is not clear who fired the shots. The Israeli military is in charge of security when the aid arrives on shore. Once they leave the secure area of the port, aid groups follow their own security protocols.
Asked about the shooting, the Israeli military told The Associated Press, using the acronym for Israel Defense Forces, “The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organization Hamas.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday that the aid convoys would not be accompanied by armed guards. He said the best security comes from working with different community groups and humanitarian partners to ensure people know aid will flow steadily. “That's not possible in a war zone,” Dujarric said.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said 569 tons of aid had been delivered to the safe zone at Gaza port as of Tuesday, but some of it remains there as distribution agents work to find alternative routes to warehouses in the Gaza Strip.
Asked if aid from the pier was still reaching Gaza residents in need, Ryder said: “I don't think so.” He said aid supplies resumed moving from the safe zone to Gaza on Tuesday after being halted for two days following Saturday's unrest. He did not provide immediate details.
However, WFP spokesperson Etefa in Cairo said he was aware of no deliveries from the coast on Tuesday.
As pressure mounted on his administration over civilian deaths in Gaza, Biden announced a U.S. mission to open new shipping routes for humanitarian supplies in his State of the Union address in March.
The war began in October after a Hamas-led attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Since then, Israeli airstrikes and fighting have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Many international humanitarian organizations have been critical of the U.S. project, saying that while any aid is welcome, rapidly increasing food supplies across land is the only way to curb rising hunger. Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who now heads Refugees International Humanitarian Aid, called Operation Pier a “humanitarian theater” and said it was being carried out for political effect.
The United Nations has said that about 1.1 million people in Gaza – nearly half the population – face catastrophic levels of hunger and that the region is on the brink of famine. The humanitarian crisis has worsened in the two weeks since Israel launched an incursion into Rafah on May 6, declaring its intention to eradicate Hamas fighters. Troops seized the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, which has since been closed.
The United Nations says that since May 10, around 1,000 trucks have entered Gaza from Israel through the nearby Kerem Shalom checkpoint, as fighting has made it difficult for aid workers to reach Gaza. There are only 30 cars.
Talavera said very little aid and fuel is currently arriving in any part of Gaza to run aid and aid trucks, and both stocks are nearly depleted.
“The bottom line is that humanitarian operations in Gaza are nearing collapse,” he wrote.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Lolita C. Balder in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
