Gaza’s Floating Humanitarian Pier Is Off to a Rocky Start

Nearly two weeks since the establishment of the new $320 million U.S. pier project for delivering humanitarian assistance to residents of Gaza, virtually none the aid flowing into the besieged enclave has made its way to those in need, officials say.

Last Friday, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) began distributing a limited number of high-energy biscuits that arrived via the new maritime route, among the first shipments unloaded from the pier.

Ten truckloads of food, driven from the pier by U.N. contractors, were received at a WFP warehouse in Deir El Balah. The next day, just five trucks made it to the warehouse after 11 others were intercepted by desperate Gazans, and the operation was temporarily halted.

“Crowds had stopped the trucks at various points along the way. There was … what I think I would refer to as self-distribution,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Tuesday.

“These trucks were traveling through areas where there’d been no aid. I think people feared that they would never see aid. They grabbed what they could,” he said.

The U.N. has since resumed transporting humanitarian assistance through the temporary pier. But the Pentagon, the U.N. and relief groups have all warned that the aid is not nearly enough.

“It is not flowing at a rate that any of us are happy with,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday. He said he did not believe any of the aid had reached people in Gaza.

Officials have cited several challenges, including logistical issues with transferring aid from ships to trucks, security threats from potential militant attacks, weather disruptions, crowds looting trucks from the port and a shortage of fuel for to the trucks due to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

While the U.N. is coordinating distribution at the floating dock, it maintains that land deliveries are the “most viable, effective, and efficient” way to address the growing humanitarian crisis in the enclave of 2.3 million people.

“I think everyone in the operation has said it: Any and all aid into Gaza is welcome by any route,” Jens Laerke, spokesman of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told journalists in Geneva on Friday. Getting aid to people in Gaza “cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute.”

Relief groups and the U.N. say that Israel’s control of the Rafah border crossing, a critical entry point for supplies and fuel, has severely hindered their operations, pushing them to the brink of collapse.

After construction of the project finished in early May, military experts warned of several challenges the pier could face, many of which have since come to fruition.

Retired U.S. Marine Colonel Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek that the operation was going to be complex due to inherent logistical issues.

“There will be a handoff on the pier itself since U.S. personnel will not enter Gaza. The United States is working to ensure the fair and safe distribution of supplies. However, Hamas controls the people and much of the territory, which will likely allow them to divert some of the supplies,” Cancian said.

Between May 6 and May 15, when the Israeli military started its encroachment into Rafah, only 154 trucks carrying food and another 156 carrying flour entered Gaza through three open land crossings. That is far below the required daily minimum of 500 to 600 trucks needed to prevent a humanitarian disaster, according to the U.N.

The U.S. led pier project includes two main components: a large floating dock made of steel segments and a two-lane, 1,800-foot causeway.

The causeway is composed of interconnected, 40-foot steel pieces linked together and attached to the shoreline, allowing U.S. forces to avoid physically entering Gaza.

Upon arrival, ships dock and offload their aid onto barges and smaller vessels, known as logistics support vessels (LSVs), which are then taken to the pier to be transferred onto waiting trucks.

Once loaded, the trucks drive onto shore and head to various distribution points across Gaza, a process that requires clearance from Israel.

Last month, the Israeli Defense Forces struck a humanitarian aid convoy operated by Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, killing seven staff members. An initial Israeli report on that strike found it to be in “serious violation” of its rules of engagement. Two senior IDF officers were fired as a result.

A separate IDF strike last week killed one UN worker and injured another as they were traveling by an official marked vehicle near Rafah. Israel says it was not given notice of the vehicle’s route.