The first aid trucks began moving through a new U.S.-built temporary pier off the Gaza Strip on Friday, ferrying much-needed food and other supplies to Palestinians caught in the heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas over the past seven months, according to reports and the U.S. military.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said the first shipments of humanitarian assistance began moving along the pier around 9 a.m. local time in Gaza.
No U.S. 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, and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations," Central Command said in a statement.
Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday, Central Command said, noting that the United Nations will coordinate the aid distribution in Gaza.
International aid agencies have been clamoring for more supplies to be sent into the Palestinian enclave, and the United Nations warned earlier this month that a "full-blown famine" has taken hold amid dire shortages of food and fuel.
The U.N. said fuel deliveries via land routes have nearly ceased, making it difficult to ship supplies to the people in Gaza.
"It doesn't matter how the aid comes, whether it's by sea or whether by land, without fuel, aid won't get to the people," U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said, the Associated Press reported.
A spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the humanitarian assistance needed in Gaza goes beyond what can be delivered through the pier.
"I think everyone in the operation has said it: Any and all aid into Gaza is welcome by any route," spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday, the AP reported.
The aid "cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute," Laerke said.
Israel fears that Hamas will use the fuel for its own military purposes, but has insisted that it is not hindering the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
