Amidst soaring hopes for humanitarian relief, the shadow of corruption looms large over Gaza's shores as reports unveil the troubling trend of aid theft from the high-profile $320 million U.S. military 'floating pier' project.
Reports indicate that a majority of the aid arriving in Gaza through the recently constructed "floating pier," which cost $320 million for 90 days of operation, by the U.S. military is being pilfered. President Joe Biden announced the pier in his State of the Union address, and it was completed last week. The Pentagon disclosed that 569 metric tons of aid had been unloaded ashore as of Tuesday.
However, there's uncertainty about how much of this aid has reached its intended recipients, with emerging accounts of Palestinians seizing aid from delivery trucks. Reuters noted a concerning lapse in aid delivery, stating that for two consecutive days, no aid had reached a U.N. warehouse from the U.S.-built pier.
According to the U.N., while ten truckloads of food aid were successfully transported to a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza on Friday, only five arrived the following day. The remaining eleven truckloads were reportedly intercepted en route by Palestinians. This interception occurred in an area that a U.N. official described as challenging to access with humanitarian aid.
Subsequently, no aid was received from the pier on Sunday or Monday. The U.N. official emphasized the necessity of establishing adequate security and logistical arrangements before further aid distribution.
When questioned about the situation in a press briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder acknowledged the aid's delivery to assembly areas on shore. However, he couldn't provide assurances regarding the aid's onward distribution by non-U.S. contractors and NGOs, nor could he specify how much of the delivered aid had reached aid organizations.
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