JERUSALEM — Humanitarian workers started moving tons of aid that piled up at a U.S.-built pier off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged Palestinian territory, the United Nations said Saturday, an important step as Washington considers whether to resume pier operations after yet another pause due to heavy seas.
It wasn’t clear when the aid might reach Palestinians in Gaza, where experts warned of the high risk of famine as the Israel-Hamas war continues in its ninth month. This is the first time trucks moved aid from the pier since the World Food Program, a U.N. agency, suspended operations there because of security concerns June 9. In just the past week, more than 10 million pounds were moved ashore, the U.S. military said.
WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press this is a one-time operation until the beach is cleared of the aid, and it is being done to avoid spoilage. Further U.N. operations at the pier depend on security assessments, Etefa said. The U.N. is investigating whether the pier was used in a recent Israeli military operation to rescue three hostages in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians.
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If WFP trucks successfully bring the aid to warehouses inside Gaza, that could affect the U.S. military’s decision on whether to reinstall the pier, which was removed because of adverse weather Friday. U.S. officials said they were considering not reinstalling it because of the possibility that the aid would not be picked up.
Lawlessness around humanitarian convoys is another challenge to aid distribution. The convoys have come under attack in Gaza. While most aid deliveries are by land, restrictions on border crossings and what items can enter Gaza further hurt a population already dependent on humanitarian aid before the war.
The conflict began Oct. 7 with Hamas militants’ attack on southern Israel. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and militants took about 250 hostages.
Since then, more than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll. The ministry said Saturday the bodies of 40 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to Gaza hospitals over the prior 24 hours.
At least three people, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed and six others wounded in a strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment.
Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in an eastern part of Gaza City, Shijaiyah, over the past week. Israel’s military on Saturday noted “close-quarters combat.” Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes, according to the U.N.
“It’s like the first weeks of the invasion,” resident Mahmoud al-Masry said of the intensity of the fighting. “Many people were killed. Many houses were destroyed. They strike anything moving.”
Elsewhere, thousands of Palestinians who remained in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah fled Friday for Muwasi, a coastal tent camp designated by the Israeli army as a safe zone. Some told the AP they evacuated because Israeli gunfire and missiles came close to where they sheltered.
