Trucks carrying humanitarian aid began landing in Gaza early Friday through a temporary dock built by the U.S. military, the first shipments of aid to the enclave by sea in two months. But new shipments of food and other supplies fall far short of what humanitarian groups say is needed to meet alarming levels of hunger and poverty in Gaza.
A day earlier, the U.S. military said it had secured a floating pier and causeway on Gaza Beach, a key step in building a maritime corridor announced by the Pentagon in March. U.S. officials and international aid groups say sea transport can only supplement, not replace, land transport.
The U.S. military said no U.S. troops entered Gaza on Friday and stressed it was only providing logistical support to deliver supplies, which were donated by a number of countries and organizations.
The war-torn territory, home to 2.2 million civilians, is more dependent than ever on humanitarian aid. The destruction after seven months of Israeli bombing, strict Israeli inspections and restrictions on crossings has severely restricted entry. Over the past week and a half, since Israel began its military assault around the city of Rafah, supplies through the main land crossing in southern Gaza have been reduced to a trickle.
Aid agencies continue to report an increasingly dire situation in Gaza. “We have never seen anything like this on Earth,” Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children USA, told The New York Times on Friday.
Israel has faced pressure from the Biden administration and other allies to do more to ease aid access, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning this week that fighting in and around Rafah was undermining recent progress in relief efforts.
More than 630,000 Gazans have fled Rafah since Israel began its military offensive on May 6, according to the United Nations’ main aid agency to the Palestinians. Many people have been displaced to the central city of Deir al-Bala, which the U.N. agency UNRWA said on social media was now “overcrowded and in poor conditions.”
This week, senior diplomats from 13 countries – including all members of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies except the United States – said in a joint letter that Israel must take “urgent action,” seen by The New York Times A copy of the joint letter arrived. The letter, addressed to Israel’s foreign minister, calls on the Israeli authorities to expand the amount of aid entering the territory, take “concrete actions” to protect civilians and work towards a “sustainable ceasefire”.
At a hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Friday, lawyers representing Israel defended Rafah’s military action as “limited and localized” and argued that judges should not seek to limit Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The hearing at the court, the United Nations’ top judicial body, was part of a case filed by South Africa in December accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In late January, the court ordered Israel to take more steps to prevent genocide, but the main case over whether genocide occurred is not expected to be heard until next year.
Last week, South Africa asked a judge to issue an emergency order aimed at preventing widespread civilian harm in Rafah. South African lawyers argued in court on Thursday that Israel’s Rafah operation was “the final step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people”.
On Friday, Israel’s Deputy Attorney General for International Law, Gilad Noem, reiterated Israel’s strong denial of 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 try to deal with the enormous complexities presented by this situation,” Mr. Noem told the judge. “That is why there has been no large-scale attack on Rafah, but rather specific, limited and localized operations spearheaded by evacuation efforts and support of humanitarian activities.”
The Israeli military said it was working with the U.S. military and would support the temporary dock project as a “top priority.”
According to USAID, the supplies that started arriving on Friday will meet only a fraction of Gaza’s needs: food bars for 11,000 people, therapeutic food for 7,200 malnourished children and hygiene products for 30,000 people. The British government said it has deployed 8,400 temporary shelters made of plastic sheeting.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement: “More assistance will be available in the coming weeks, but we know the sea route is not the only answer.”
It is unclear where or when the aid will be delivered in the enclave. The U.N. World Food Program said in a statement that it would be responsible for handling the logistics of aid moving through the terminal in Gaza, including coordinating trucks, overseeing the loading of supplies, sending supplies to warehouses and handing them over to “humanitarian cooperation partners.” partner”.
Pentagon officials said they initially aim to move about 90 truckloads of aid per day by sea, increasing that number to about 150 trucks when the operation reaches capacity. Before the war began last October, about 500 trucks of commercial supplies and aid arrived in Gaza every day.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III discussed the maritime corridor in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Galant on Thursday, according to the Pentagon. Austin stressed the need to “increase” humanitarian aid to Gaza through land crossings in addition to the terminal, according to the ministry.
Lt. Gen. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of Central Command, said the terminal would only supplement the flow of aid through land border crossings, which he stressed was “the most efficient way to deliver the necessary quantities of aid.”
One of Gaza’s two main aid crossings, at Rafah on the border with Egypt, has been closed since Israel began military operations against Hamas militants there. Israel closed its second main crossing at Kerem Shalom last week after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby. Israel said the crossing had reopened.
An aid organization called World Central Kitchen built a temporary dock in mid-March to deliver aid to Gaza by sea for the first time in nearly two decades. But those efforts came to an abrupt halt in early April when seven of the organization’s workers were killed in a strike in Israel.
