in-cyprus 21 May 2024
The United Nations has not received any aid from a U.S.-built pier in Gaza for the past two days after an incident on Saturday in which food was taken from 11 out of 16 trucks before they reached a U.N. warehouse, a U.N. official told Reuters on Monday.
“We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” said the U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Aid deliveries began arriving at a U.S.-built pier on Friday as Israel comes under growing global pressure to allow more supplies into the besieged coastal enclave, where it is at war with Palestinian militants Hamas and a famine looms.
After months of discussions, the U.N. agreed to assist in coordinating aid deliveries and distribution at the floating dock, but has remained adamant that aid deliveries by land are the “most viable, effective and efficient” way to combat the humanitarian crisis in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
The U.N. said that 10 truckloads of food aid – transported from the pier site by U.N. contractors – were received on Friday at a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza, a short distance away.
But on Saturday, only five truckloads of aid made it to the warehouse after 11 others were cleaned out by Palestinians during the journey through an area that the U.N. official said has been hard to access with humanitarian aid.
“There were some people, they’ve seen the trucks. They’ve not seen trucks for a while,” the official said. “They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels.”
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that the U.N. had not received any aid deliveries from the pier on Sunday or Monday.
Aid offloaded at the pier comes via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, where it is first inspected by Israel. Britain said on Friday it had delivered its first aid shipment via the pier.
The pier operation is estimated to cost $320 million and involve 1,000 U.S. service members, a U.S. defense official and a source familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
U.S. officials have said the pier would initially handle 90 trucks a day, but that number could go to 150 trucks. To maintain U.N. neutrality at the pier, a handful of U.N. staff at the site do not have any contact with the Israeli military, which is providing security and logistics support.
(Reuters)
