Temporary Pier in Gaza Strip Completed... Numerous Challenges Remain Before Relief Supplies Delivery

Despite the United States completing a temporary pier on the coast of the Gaza Strip on the 17th to open a route for distributing relief supplies, it has been revealed that there are difficulties in delivering the aid intact.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 23rd (local time), in the week following the opening of the temporary pier in the Gaza Strip, the amount of relief supplies that arrived at the World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse within Gaza amounted to only about 70 truckloads. Eleven trucks were looted during transportation. After the looting occurred, transportation of relief supplies was completely halted for two days.

[Image source= Xinhua News Agency]

This falls short of the initial plan to dispatch 90 relief trucks per day through the pier, eventually increasing to 150 trucks. The U.S. Department of Defense acknowledged that humanitarian aid through the pier has barely reached the Palestinians.

This was a problem anticipated from the outset when the pier construction plan was proposed. In particular, the absence of U.S. troops stationed in the Gaza Strip is considered the biggest flaw. Previously, the U.S. installed a pier in Somalia in 1993 for humanitarian aid. According to retired U.S. Army Major General Paul Eaton, four units (about 2,000 troops) composed of U.S. light infantry were stationed on the ground to transport relief supplies at that time.

However, since there are no U.S. troops in the Gaza Strip, such transportation operations are impossible. A military analyst likened the situation by saying, "The U.S. military has an engine but no wheels." Another problem is that Gaza residents are suffering from extreme hunger. They are rushing to loot relief supplies for survival, and to make matters worse, black market merchants have appeared who sell the relief goods at inflated prices.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and U.S. officials have appealed that delivering relief supplies to logistics centers without escort is extremely difficult. Ravi Torbay, chairman of the international relief organization Project Hope, pointed out, "If setting up the pier and transporting goods to the pier and coast is one task, securing logistics to provide aid to the most needed places is a completely different game."

WFP believes that this deadlock can be resolved if Israel permits an 'alternative route' for delivering relief supplies. WFP reported that on the 21st and 22nd, relief supplies safely arrived using a new route instead of the existing one.

However, experts predict that even if all problems are resolved, maritime operations will be less efficient than land operations. This is because sending 150 trucks per day through the pier still falls far short of the amount needed by Gaza residents. Retired U.S. General Joseph Votel, former Central Command commander, diagnosed, "There is still no established process or structure for delivering relief supplies in the Gaza Strip."