None of the food and supplies that entered the Gaza Strip through a U.S.-built temporary pier during the first five days of the operation have been distributed to Palestinians by aid groups, Pentagon spokesman Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said. at a press conference. briefing on Tuesday.
General Ryder said 569 tons of aid had reached the Gaza coast, but those supplies had yet to be distributed by humanitarian organizations.
Hungry crowds on Saturdays looted several World Food Program trucks transporting aid delivered through the pier, prompting the agency to suspend the delivery of aid arriving at the pier on Sunday and Monday.
General Ryder also said that alternative routes for the safe movement of personnel and cargo had been identified following discussions with Israel and the United Nations. The aid is now being taken to warehouses for further distribution, he said.
“We expect aid to be distributed in the coming days, of course, conditions permitting,” he said.
The temporary pier is one of the few remaining access points for aid shipments following the Israeli raid on Rafah, southern Gaza, earlier this month in response to a Hamas rocket attack that killed four soldiers on May 5. Israel not only captured the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, but also closed the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel. Those were the two main entry points for truck convoys transporting aid overland.
Although Israel has since reopened Kerem Shalom, only 69 trucks have entered Gaza in the past two weeks, according to UN data. That is far fewer than the number of aid trucks that entered through the two southern border crossings before Israeli forces entered Rafah. That number peaked at 340 trucks per day.
The 569 tons that have arrived at the pier so far is a fraction of the amount of aid that entered Gaza via land routes before Israel seized the Rafah crossing. The United Nations estimates that trucks carrying food to Gaza each contain about 15 to 30 tons.
The pier system, which cost an estimated $300 million, became operational on Thursday after being connected to the Mediterranean coast in central Gaza. The first trucks with aid left on Friday move ashore. However, so far the operation has not been able to achieve the target of bringing in 90 trucks per day and eventually increasing to 150 trucks.
General Ryder said more help was on the way, but the US military was taking a “crawl, walk, run” approach, overcoming logistical hurdles and taking security conditions into account. “So I think you'll see that as we work together the amount of aid increases, and the ability to distribute it increases,” he said.