More trucks roll off new floating US aid pier in Gaza; blasts heard and smoke seen from Gaza skyline

(18 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++QUALITY AS INCOMING++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northern Gaza - 18 May 2024
1. Vessel near the U.S.-built floating pier for aid
2. Various of smoke seen rising from buildings beyond shore
3. Truck that has come in across pier
4. Nearby damage to buildings
5. Trucks that have come across pier and people running next to them

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southern Israel (looking into Gaza) - 18 May 2024
++EVENING SHOTS++
6. Various of smoke rising over Gaza skyline; AUDIO: blasts
STORYLINE:
Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. pier and into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered the delivery of food and other supplies.

The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day, all while Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah in its seven-month offensive against Hamas. At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “more than 300 pallets” of aid were in the initial delivery and handed over to the U.N., which was preparing it for distribution.

Kirby said the U.S. has gotten indications that “some of that aid was already moving into Gaza.”

But the U.S., U.N. and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the Palestinian territory on an average day.

The operation's success also remains tenuous because of the risk of militant attack, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the aid trucks due to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage in that assault on southern Israel. The Israeli offensive since has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, local health officials say, while hundreds more have been killed in the West Bank.

Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza, while the U.N. World Food Program says famine has already taken hold in Gaza’s north.

Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday, and the U.S. military's Central Command said the first aid crossed into Gaza at 9 a.m. Friday. It said no American troops went ashore in the operation.

The Pentagon said no backups were expected in the distribution process. The U.S. plan is for the United Nations, through the World Food Program, to take charge of the aid once it leaves the pier. This will involve coordinating the arrival of empty trucks and their registration, overseeing the transfer of goods coming through the floating dock to the trucks and their dispatch to warehouses across Gaza, and, finally, handing over the supplies to aid groups for delivery.

The WFP said Friday evening that aid had that come through the pier had been transported to its warehouses in Deir al-Balah and was ready for collection and distribution.

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