Posted on 03/11/2024 10:34:48 AM PDT by SJackson
Defense minister touts internationally backed route as key to making sure aid gets to civilians and not terror group as Spanish ship in Cyprus loaded with food readies pilot voyage
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant backed an international plan to provide aid to Gaza via a temporary seaport, saying the initiative would help speed along Israel’s goal of toppling the Hamas terror group.
His comments came as the US military said a vessel had been dispatched to the region with equipment to construct a dock meant to bolster plans to begin delivering aid to Gaza by sea, as a boat filled with aid idled off the coast of Cyprus.
“The process is designed to bring aid directly to the residents and thus continue the collapse of Hamas’s rule in Gaza,” Gallant said while touring the Gaza coast from a Dvora-class navy patrol boat.
Officials from the UN and various relief organizations say food and other humanitarian aid have been slow to get into the Strip and distributed, especially to northern Gaza, hampered by Israeli inspections, the location of crossings in the south of the Strip, and desperate Gazans, as well as looters, picking trucks clean before they can reach the north part of the enclave.
Amid warnings of famine, the US, Jordan and others have stepped up efforts to get in aid by air and now sea, though UN officials insist ground deliveries remain the most efficient way to deliver relief.
Gallant said aid deliveries by sea would help “ensure that supplies reach here for those who need them and not for those who don’t.”
“We will bring the aid through a maritime route that is coordinated with the US on the security and humanitarian side, with the assistance of the UAE on the civil side, and appropriate inspection in Cyprus, and we will bring goods imported by international organizations with American assistance,” he said.
The US Central Command said Sunday that a first US Army vessel, the General Frank S. Besson, left a base in Virginia on Saturday and was on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean with construction equipment, after US President Joe Biden announced plans to increase aid deliveries to the area by sea.
The new push for aid came as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was set to begin Monday in much of the world after officials in Saudi Arabia saw the crescent moon. Hopes for a new temporary ceasefire by Ramadan faded days ago with negotiations apparently stalled.
US officials said that it would likely be weeks before the pier is operational. Construction is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars and take up to 60 days, The New York Times reported.
Gaza’s waters are also considered too shallow for the large barges that would be needed to ship in the cargo.
International aid groups do not appear to be planning to wait for the construction of the US dock to try out the sea route.
A ship belonging to Spanish aid group Open Arms and carrying 200 tons of food aid was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor “as soon as possible” but not Sunday, said spokesperson Linda Roth with partner organization World Central Kitchen, a charity that delivers food to areas that suffered natural disasters.
The ship in Cyprus is expected to take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location in Gaza.
A member of the charity said on X that once the ship’s barge reaches Gaza, aid would be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven to northern Gaza, which was the first focus of Israel’s military offensive.
The sea corridor is backed by the European Union together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The European Commission has said that UN agencies and the Red Cross will play a role
The US announced the plan for the sea route and dock following an incident in northern Gaza in which over 100 Palestinians were killed while trying to access an aid truck. It is unclear how many of the casualties died because of a stampede or Israeli fire.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, at least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. These numbers cannot be independently verified, and the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says that women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas operatives since the beginning of the war.
War broke out on October 7 after Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostages. Israel’s air and ground offensive has devastated large parts of Gaza and displaced about 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million.
More like the PLO in Tunis.
That seems to be common with aid shipments just about everywhere. I could be ‘incorrect’.
You took the words out of my mouth.
Answer to your rhetorical question: Duh Internashunal Cumyoonity is stupid enough to believe this. Or maybe just playing dumb.
Then Israel loses this war. I doubt there are any states in the region who would take them, referring to the 4-6 batallions still surviving. Maybe Iran or Afghanistan, but you can't sneak them there easily. Egypt has heavily armed their border, and it's not in anticipation of attacking Israel, they don't want more terrorists in the Sinai. Civilian refugees, that would take western nations willing to take them, and yes, at least a quarter of the civilians would be Hamas combatants.
In many ways, the difference would be foreign, probably NATO and US, troops/NGOs handling the distribution and security.
Hate to say it , but Biden will probably bring them to the US
Other than as a Biden political stunt I doubt the “port” means much. Most sources say it will be at least 2 months before it’s functional. If Israel goes forward with it’s intention to destroy Hamas most of it will be over by then. And with 3 crossings from Israel open, maybe even one from Egypt, the port won’t be needed. The real problem is destroying Hamas on the ground so aid can be distributed without Hamas interference. And if they’re not, the aid from the port will end up in Hamas combatants stomachs and for sale on the black market.
I believe that's been suggested in Congress. Wouldn't be popular, but Joe has his secret flights to the US. If he can get them to an airport who would know.
The whole idea is crazy.
there are ships in Cyprus waiting for the pier to be built in two to three months that could just as easily be sent to an Israeli port and transported by land a whole 40 miles to Gaza.
The pier either has a an undisclosed purpose or is simply a futile gesture media stunt showing the Biden Admin is actually doing something.
Talk about crazy I’ve read they’re going to attempt to tow barges across from Cypress very soon, the idea being to unload them with land based cranes. What could go wrong there?
Good thing that nobody is actually starving in Gaza unless Hamas wants them to be.
Still seeing a lot of fat Gazans waddling around so not sure how accurate reports of wide spread famine are in Gaza.
A few months from now, it will be a red hot political campaign in America with the Democrat polling poorly. There is no way a Dem president could stand up to his own party if the US has effective control of the port escape route. Gazans are coming here.
I thought the air drop delivery was somewhat a success.
It can off load and deliver aid to Gaza much faster than some make shift pier could ever do.
Seriously - Ashdod could off load an entire fleet of barges from Cyprus by 10am and have the goods delivered via truck to Gaza in time for dinner without breaking a sweat
This whole plan makes no practical sense.
Anything this fn government does is detrimental to the US…and that ‘reason’ is an obvious bald faced lie….
Haifa, maybe 100 miles, Ashkelon, 10 or so, Tel Aviv, maybe 40. Yes, that would make far more sense and could begin tomorrow with two crossings. Of course they’re in the north, the refugees in the south. Which isn’t very far. But a temporary port is fun. I bet at some point Joe will brag about building the largest temporary port since D-Day.
Other than the fatalities, I think it is, I think it’s ongoing. But nowhere near enough volume.
But then the Israelis will inspect the shipment, and then how will they smuggle munitions and weapons in!
But how could that possibly happen with such high integrity, trust worthy players in charge of the operation?
I hear Biden is favoring USAID to lead an International Community Coalition funded by Qatar, the UAE and various highly experienced UN affiliated NGOs to administrate the entire operation now that UNRWA is out of favor.
So what could possibly go wrong with that?
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