The Pentagon has spent $320 million and engaged 1,000 soldiers to open a maritime corridor to enable the flow of aid into Gaza to ease the ongoing humanitarian crisis there. But despite their efforts, in the first week of operations only 820 tons of aid was delivered through the pier and just two-thirds of that reached distribution points in Gaza, the Pentagon revealed on Thursday.
That amount is roughly the same as 71 truckloads which falls below the initial target of 90 truckloads a day and is about 15% of the estimated minimum daily need for more than 2 million people facing a famine, according to a report published on Saturday.
Citing UN officials, the report adds that more than a dozen trucks from the pier never made it to their destinations in Gaza, and that the trucks were unable to use alternative routes due to Israeli restrictions even after desperate civilians commandeered the aid.
“It is not flowing at the rate that any of us would be happy with, because we always want more,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday. Sullivan has rejected that the administration’s poor planning is to blame for the poor numbers, and has referred to the crisis in Gaza as the result of “a dynamic environment.”
The supplies goes through a cumbersome process; supplies is transported about 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea to a floating platform built by the US. The pallets are then transported another 6 miles to a floating US-built causeway secured to the beach by Israeli army engineers, and are then driven another few hundred feet down the causeway and onto the beach into a zone controlled by Israeli soldiers. Another issue that the US faces is that Hamas has said it would treat the US forces at the pier as an occupying forces.
US officials have also said that the floating pier would expand capacity to enable 150 trucks a day to enter Gaza, in the hopes of aiding at least 500,000 people a month.
A report from Sputnik on Thursday revealed that the pier was first used to bring in military equipment before bringing in food; however, the first delivery of food was for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
The report adds that even if the pier begins running at full capacity, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has repeatedly emphasized that it will not be enough and Israel must open land routes to allow aid in.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered an immediate halt to Israel’s military offensive in Rafah. The court has said that the attack on Gaza’s southernmost city has already displaced more than 800,000 people less than 20 days after it first began its assault.
The court’s decision has added to the increasing pressure that Israel now faces, following arrest warrants that were issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and two others for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Palestinian authorities have reported that over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict first broke out in October. A majority of those who have been killed are believed to be women and children.