Please note:. Ryder said the U.S. did an air drop of
more than 10 metric tons of ready-to-eat meals Sunday.
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As UN pauses Gaza aid distribution from pier, U.S.
plans to stockpile it on secure beach
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Monday that it
plans to stockpile aid shipments on a secure beach in
Gaza during a U.N. pause on distributing food from the
American-built pier after one of the deadliest days of
the Israel-Hamas war.
The U.N. World Food Program, which works with U.S.
officials to transfer desperately needed aid from the
month-old pier to warehouses and local relief teams in
Gaza, tweeted Monday that the U.N. would conduct a
security review to assess the safety of its staff in
handling aid deliveries from the pier. It said the
pause would be temporary.
A humanitarian official familiar with the situation
said the security review is expected to conclude within
a few days and U.N. officials would then make decisions
on resuming operations. The official spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss planning.
The pause, which WFP head Cindy McCain first announced
in a TV interview Sunday, is the latest trouble to hit
the Biden administration’s new sea route for bringing
in aid to Palestinians. It also signals sharpened
concern by the U.N. and relief organizations about
their ability to safely care for Gaza’s civilians
during the eight-month-old war.
The review follows an Israeli military operation on
Saturday that rescued four Israeli hostages taken by
Hamas on Oct. 7, in the attack that triggered the war,
and left 274 Palestinians and one Israeli commando
dead.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said “it’s only
normal” that U.N. humanitarian officials pause and
review the security situation following the Israeli
operation. McCain said Sunday that two of WFP’s
warehouses had been “rocketed” and a staffer injured.
When such large-scale military operations take place,
Dujarric said, “you can only imagine the difficulties
in distributing the aid, both for the safety of those
who are trying to get it and those who are trying to
distribute it.”
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said the
delivery of aid from Cyprus to the pier was paused due
to high seas Sunday and Monday but would resume
Tuesday. He said there is enough space for aid to be
stored in a secure holding area on the beach until
agencies restart distribution into Gaza.
“It’s a pretty large area,” he told reporters. “I think
we can continue to stockpile aid in the assembly area
for onward distribution.”
The pause came just a day after the U.S. military and
the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is
coordinating logistics with relief groups, said
Saturday that the pier restarted operations after
repairs. Part of the structure broke apart in rough
seas and bad weather late last month.
Saturday’s fighting, followed by the pause for the
security review, blocked the planned distribution of
aid from the pier, the humanitarian official said.
President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to
construct the pier in March, in hopes of carving out an
alternative aid route as the fighting and Israeli
restrictions sharply limit shipments through land
borders. But rough seas in the Mediterranean,
insecurity within Gaza and a surge in fighting since
early May mean the pier, completed in mid-May, has been
able to operate for only about a week.
READ MORE: UN Security Council votes to adopt
resolution for Israel-Hamas cease-fire plan
Ryder, pushing back against claims on social media,
denied that any aspect of the pier or its equipment had
been used in Saturday’s military operation. The
Pentagon says an area south of the pier was used for
the return of the freed hostages back to Israel.
“Particularly in this environment, given what you’re
seeing play out in the Israel-Hamas conflict, there is
a lot of misinformation and disinformation about what
U.S. forces are or are not doing,” he told reporters.
Ryder said the U.S. did an air drop of more than 10
metric tons of ready-to-eat meals Sunday.
U.S. and international officials and private aid
organizations say only a steady daily flow of hundreds
of truck shipments through land borders can address the
need for food and emergency aid in Gaza. More than 1
million people there are facing famine and all 2.3
million are struggling for food.
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