Dina Mahmoud (London)
Shortly after the actual launch yesterday of operations to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip through the sea pier established by the US army off the shores of the Strip, relief experts warned that this route may not be sufficient to meet the basic needs of more than two million Palestinians who live there. The coastal enclave has been afflicted by battles for more than seven months. Experts pointed out that the beginning of the arrival of trucks loaded with relief supplies to Gaza via this pier, which was established by about a thousand American military personnel at a cost of approximately $320 million, does not negate the fact that the challenges surrounding efforts to spare the Palestinians of Gaza from starvation, which seem to be facing them, still exist, with the continued survival of… Obstacles that prevent the transportation of aid by land.
Even if American military officials were able to bring the shipments transported through the new pier to its maximum capacity of 150 trucks per day, this would still be much less than the number of trucks that the Gaza Strip received every day before the outbreak of war, with an average of more than five hundred, carrying quantities of Food, medicine, water, fuel, etc.
According to the plan drawn up by Washington, the shipments received by the pier, coming across the sea from Cyprus, will be transported to a port established by Israel in the southwest of Gaza City, before being distributed, by members of humanitarian organizations working in the Strip, to those in need.
Amid warnings from relief agencies of the steady decline in food and fuel supplies in the southern areas of Gaza, and assurances from the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations World Food Program that famine has already been detected in the northern Gaza Strip, experts warn that the process of delivering aid through the American naval pier , is still fragile.
They point out that this operation will remain highly vulnerable to armed attacks, and will face various logistical obstacles, the most prominent of which is the increasing shortage of fuel needed to operate the trucks, which will be entrusted with the task of transporting the supplies arriving at the pier to the Palestinians in various parts of the Gaza Strip.
Under the US plan, the United Nations would assume responsibility for that aid once it was transported from the pier. Two American warships are stationed near the coast of Gaza, which can contribute to providing protection for the entire operation, if circumstances require it.
But senior officials at the US Agency for International Development, which helps provide logistics services to transport aid from the dock to the Strip, said that doubts still surround the issue of ensuring the safety of the aid workers who will distribute these supplies, in light of the continuing fighting in Gaza.
Permits
These officials indicated, in statements published by the American newspaper “Los Angeles Times” on its website, that the working environment of these elements is “extremely unsafe,” stressing that it is still difficult for the organizations that will undertake the distribution operations to obtain permits that guarantee their movement. Without obstacles throughout the sector.
The sea journey from the Cypriot port of Larnaca to the American pier is expected to take at least 15 hours, or a full day of sailing.
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