Aid trucks discharge from a US military pier along Gaza's shoreline, yet they go unclaimed.
Big hurdles persist, though.
The US military claims they are transporting approximately 800 pallets of humanitarian aid daily to Gaza via the temporary pier, which translates to about 40 trucks. However, this aid isn't helping to improve the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, home to over 2 million individuals grappling with crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity, according to a recent study.
More than 6,000 pallets of aid shipped via the pier are sitting uncollected onshore, according to US military officials, as the World Food Program has halted aid collection due to security concerns.
On Tuesday, CNN was granted access to the pier for the first time since its attachment to the Gaza coast last month. We observed trucks departing from a logistical vessel, crossing the pier, and reaching the Gaza shoreline.
The pier is constructed from interlocking floating platforms weighing hundreds of tons of steel that vibrate with every passing wave. Tug boats on both sides help maintain the platform's stability. An Israeli military division is responsible for the security of US military personnel and civilian truck drivers in the area, and a US C-RAM air defense system capable of intercepting mortars provides additional protection.
The visit also provided CNN the opportunity to closely witness the extensive damage that the nearly nine months of war have inflicted on Gaza's coastline, with most buildings along the coast either demolished or heavily damaged.
Beyond the destroyed buildings, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is rising to crisis levels once more, particularly in northern Gaza, where hunger is escalating. Humanitarian aid operations in Gaza have been impeded by an increase in Israeli military operations over the past month, and humanitarian aid officials report that lawlessness and looting are also on the rise.
The Israeli military claims they have been getting hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza lately, attributing the delayed aid distribution to humanitarian aid agencies' insufficient capacity. However, aid groups claim their efforts are thwarted by a lack of communication with the Israeli military that leaves them vulnerable to crossfire.
US President Joe Biden pledged to construct the pier during his State of the Union address, promising it would boost the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
However, bad weather and choppy seas have hindered this endeavor, causing damage to the pier and rendering it inoperable for weeks over the last month-and-a-half.
The Pentagon has vowed to maintain the pier operational, despite rumors that it was thinking about abandoning the project entirely.
In response to criticism from humanitarian aid groups that the US's $230-million initiative would have been more effective if used to pressure Israel to get more aid into Gaza via land routes, Capt. Joel Stewart, the senior Navy officer involved in the operation, told CNN the pier was designed as a "temporary solution" rather than a "long-term strategy."
"The sea is a capricious taskmaster. Unpredictable. Each wave is different from the last, so handling that is a challenge," he said, "but we've adapted to this and I think we're in a better position now than we were initially."
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The World Food Program, due to security concerns, has halted aid collection from the US-built pier in the Middle East, leading to over 6,000 pallets of aid remaining uncollected onshore. Despite US President Joe Biden's pledge to improve humanitarian aid flow to Gaza, disputes and challenges persist between humanitarian aid groups and the Israeli military, affecting the distribution of aid on a global scale.
