A United Nations (UN) official told Reuters they have not received any aid for the past two days from the US-built pier in Gaza following a major pillaging incident Saturday.
11 out of 16 trucks sent from the pier were waylaid and pillaged Saturday before entering a UN warehouse, the official told Reuters.
No US pier aid to UN in Gaza for two days after truck incident https://t.co/zGOoRfaadt
— Ilan Hulkower (@IHulkower) May 20, 2024
“We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” the official told the outlet.”There were some people [Gazans], they’ve seen the trucks. They’ve not seen trucks for a while,” the official said. “They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels.” the official added.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric claimed no aid has been received from the pier since that day, the outlet reported. Aid only began flowing from the pier following its much-anticipated opening on Friday, Reuters reported. American officials have said the pier will initially handle 90 trucks a day and will ramp to 150 trucks, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Hamas Stole Major Shipment Of Aid, State Department Says)
The pier was estimated to cost $320 million and involved 1,000 soldiers to build, an official from the Pentagon and a source familiar with the pier project told Reuters. The pier was completely built on May 7 but its operations were delayed initially due to inclement weather, The Times of Israel reported. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told the press “high winds and high sea swells” were the reasons behind the delay.
President Joe Biden unveiled the pier as a major plank in his Gaza policy during his State of the Union on March 7, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The building site for the pier reportedly came under assault briefly by Gazan armed groups, Israeli and United Nations officials told the press on April 25.
