The US military said aid deliveries began Friday via a temporary pier in Gaza aimed at ramping up emergency humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“Today at approximately 9 a.m. (Gaza time), trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore via a temporary pier in Gaza,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, adding that no US troops went ashore.
“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature,” it said.
The pier was successfully anchored on Thursday, with around 500 tonnes of aid expected to enter the Palestinian territory in the coming days.
Photos released on Thursday by CENTCOM showed humanitarian aid being lifted onto a barge in the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod.
The Palestinian territory is facing famine after an Israeli siege brought dire shortages of food as well as safe water, medicines and fuel for its 2.4 million people.
Ever since Israeli forces seized control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing last week, the sporadic arrival of relief convoys has decreased to a trickle.
The UN has stated that the only way to stop the humanitarian crisis from getting worse is to open up land crossing points and permit more truck convoys into Gaza.
Over 1,170 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, Israel’s horrific military retaliation has killed at least 35,272 people, the majority of whom were civilians.
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