In the week since the U.S. military and allies built temporary docks along the Gaza coastline, Pentagon planners have faced warnings from critics of the logistical nightmare the effort would bring.
Officials acknowledged this week that the Defense Department expected a steady stream of humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza through the terminals so far, but Palestinians in the besieged strip have received little relief. The U.N. World Food Program said several trucks were robbed on their way to warehouses, while the complexity of plans to operate terminals in a war zone continued to slow deliveries.
As expected, the problem occurs at the backend of the operation. Looting of aid trucks continues and forced the World Food Program to suspend operations for two days, officials said. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, suspended food distribution in Rafah on Tuesday, citing a lack of security. It added that it had not received any medical supplies for 10 days due to closures and disruptions at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.
People always assume the project will be difficult. On the one hand, White House policy does not allow U.S. troops to be stationed in Gaza. As a result, the Pentagon has the ability to start but not complete the mission, a situation that one military analyst likened to having a car engine but no wheels.
As the terminal project progresses with difficulty, the situation in Gaza becomes increasingly severe. More than 34,000 people have died and more than 77,000 have been injured, according to the region’s health department. The toll will only increase as Israel expands its operations in Rafah, southern Gaza.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galante of “deliberately using starvation as a tactic of war, including withholding humanitarian relief supplies.” Targeting civilians in conflict”. Israelis strongly deny the accusations.
But aid groups say many Gazans are experiencing massive hunger. Palestinians have forcibly snatched aid from trucks, which U.N. officials say 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 marketeers, who seize supplies and sell them at inflated prices.
UNRWA and U.S. officials said distributing aid would be extremely difficult without police escorts to protect the convoys from the crowds.
The dock plan is an attempt by the Biden administration to alleviate some of the humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder described the process 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 brink of famine. The Pentagon built and assembled the dock next to a warship off the coast, with about 1,000 U.S. troops involved, U.S. officials said. It is connected to central Gaza. Emergency trucks began arriving Friday.
However, so far the business has not achieved its goal of bringing in 90 trucks per day and eventually increasing it to 150 trucks. The agency said 10 trucks entered the World Food Program warehouse on Friday, but 11 of the 16 trucks were robbed on Saturday. Business was suspended for two days. 17 trucks arrived on Tuesday and 27 on Wednesday.
The Pentagon calls the program “JLOTS,” or Joint Logistics Ashore, and the capability has been used for humanitarian relief in Somalia, Kuwait and Haiti.
Military officials involved in past efforts said distributing humanitarian aid to those in need was more difficult than building infrastructure.
“It’s one thing to build a dock and get supplies to the dock and to the shore,” Rabbi Tobey, president of the aid group Project Hope, said in an interview. “Getting the logistics in place to get aid to where it’s needed most It’s a completely different thing and that’s where the planning and coordination is lacking.”
Retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton is in Somalia in 1993 when the U.S. military built a dock to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians fighting local wars. General Eaton said in an interview that about 4 Army light infantry battalions (2,000 soldiers) were on site to help the aid pass smoothly.
“The ships carrying the humanitarian relief supplies will be delivered to ports under our absolute control and then loaded onto trucks,” he said. “Then we will deploy armed forces – the United States Armed Forces – inside the vehicles to protect the drivers.”
He added, “The supplies arrive in a protected environment, are loaded in a protected environment, and transported in a protected environment to their end-use location.”
That did not happen in Gaza.
The World Food Program warned on Tuesday that the terminal project could fail if Israel does not do more to ensure the safe distribution of aid. The agency suspended deliveries from the terminal after an aid truck was robbed and a Palestinian man was killed.
While some food and goods have entered Gaza in recent days, few in the war-torn enclave can afford them after months of fighting without a regular income. The cash crisis has increased the importance of providing aid to poor Gazans.
Abir Etfa, a spokesman for the World Food Program, said the key to overcoming the aid impasse was obtaining permission from Israel to deliver goods via alternative routes. She said the new route was used on Tuesday and Wednesday and the convoy reached its destination without incident.
The initial failure of the terminal project fueled criticism from some diplomats who said the plan was too costly and ineffective.
Pentagon officials privately complained that the Biden administration had little consultation with the military when proposing the dock, which the military would have to build and operate in the Mediterranean. Defense officials are scrambling to implement the plan, which they estimate will take two months to complete.
Aid groups say that even if all problems are resolved, sea operations will still be less efficient than land operations. Even if the program reaches its goal of 150 trucks a day, shipments of food and other supplies will still fall short of what aid groups say is the need of a war-torn population.
Aid workers described transport bottlenecks at border crossings caused by long inspections of trucks, limited operating hours and protests by Israelis. Israeli officials deny they are impeding the flow of aid and blame the United Nations for creating the backlog.
“There are no established processes and structures for providing assistance in Gaza,” said Gen. Joseph L. Votel, former commander of U.S. Central Command.
“This is the responsibility of the international aid community and the Israel Defense Forces,” he said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “This is still very much a war zone.”
