Aid brought into Gaza via the US constructed pier is now being distributed following days of delays

Aid groups have begun distributing the humanitarian assistance offloaded at the US pier in Gaza to Palestinians, after encountering significant obstacles on distribution routes including Hamas drones and looting that delayed the deliveries.

Aid groups have begun distributing the humanitarian assistance offloaded at the US pier in Gaza to Palestinians, after encountering significant obstacles on distribution routes including Hamas drones and looting that delayed the deliveries. More than 500 metric tons of food and other humanitarian aid offloaded at the pier has now been handed off to humanitarian partners, and two-thirds of that aid has distributed to or is in the process of reaching those in need, a top US Agency for International Development (USAID) official told reporters on a call Thursday. The distribution comes several days after the US military’s pier operation launched and got off to a rocky start. Aid deliveries from the pier to warehouses inside Gaza were initially hindered by a Hamas drone attack on the IDF “several miles away” from the pier that led to a freeze on convoy movements, and some trucks were looted along one of the distribution paths earlier this week, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of United States Central Command, said in a call with reporters on Thursday. As a result, the US military had to help USAID come up with alternative, safer routes for trucks leaving the marshaling area on the beach near the pier and traveling to the warehouses. “Such challenges with internal distribution are not new or unique to aid delivery from the sea,” Cooper said. “But these atmospherics, I think, give you some sense of the operating environment.”