The White House is defending President Joe Biden’s decision to build a pier off Gaza’s coast to supplement the international community’s humanitarian efforts despite initial hurdles.
The United Nations, which is tasked with distributing the aid provided from the pier throughout Gaza, has distributed some of the 695 metric tons of food to civilians in Deir al Balah, Al Mawasi, and Khan Yunis, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday.
“About two-thirds of that either has gone or is on its way to going to Palestinian civilians,” he said, acknowledging that a third of the aid has yet to leave the staging area near the beach.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged on Tuesday his belief that aid from the pier had not been distributed to the Palestinian people after several aid trucks were looted by desperate residents before the aid could get to the intended locations.
The problem, to date, has not been getting the aid from Cyprus to Gaza. Rather, it’s been the distribution of aid from the shore.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that 11 of the 16 trucks leaving the pier last weekend were looted by desperate residents, according to ABC News.
The United States, Israel, and the U.N. are engaged in discussions about identifying alternative land routes for aid distribution, Ryder added.
“No, it’s not a failure of planning,” Sullivan continued. “Yes, it is an indication this is a dynamic environment we need to continue to refine. But aid is flowing. It is not flowing at the rate that any of us would be happy with because we always want more, but we are actually seeing good cooperation between the U.S., the [Israel Defense Forces], the U.N., and other humanitarian organizations to ensure that aid goes from that pier to innocent people in need.”
Aid is screened and palletized in Cyprus before it is loaded on commercial or military vessels that will travel from there to the pier, which is in the Mediterranean. The aid then gets transported to smaller U.S. military vessels, which go to the causeway. The smaller ships can get closer to the coast than bigger ships. The aid will then be unloaded and put on trucks that are driven down the causeway and unloaded for U.N. distribution.
The amount of aid the U.S. has transported via the maritime route is lower than initial expectations, even as officials warned they would continue to ramp up deliveries with time.
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Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said last week that the U.S. initially hoped to transport 500 tons of aid per day via the pier.
The causeway was anchored into Gaza’s coast last week after it had been delayed by poor weather conditions for several days.