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The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly dramatic.
The USA now wants to increase its aid deliveries via a temporary port.
Washington - Amid the dwindling hope that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems possible, there is at least a slight ray of hope.
Although it is questionable whether a hostage rescue will be achieved before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Joe Biden has ordered the US military to build a temporary port and pier on the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip.
This new sea route is intended to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid.
U.S. government officials described this "emergency mission" as urgently needed assistance to the Gaza Strip and is part of the president's direct initiative to deliver aid to the area by air, land and sea.
This emergency mission was announced during Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday evening.
Aid supplies to the Gaza Strip – by sea, air and land
The port plan follows U.S. military aid drops into the Gaza Strip initiated last week, the third of which took place on Thursday.
The new port facility will allow "hundreds" of truckloads of aid to be brought into Gaza every day, said one of three senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the plan but spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House.
The aid is routed via Cyprus, where it is inspected by Israel.
Food, water, medicine and emergency shelter are then loaded onto large ships and transported to Gaza.
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Tense relations between Biden and Israel: Aid to Gaza restricted
Relations between Washington and Jerusalem have become increasingly tense as Israel's siege on Gaza has sharply limited the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into the enclave.
Humanitarian organizations say millions of civilians in the war zone are on the brink of famine and a worsening health catastrophe.
Displaced Palestinians gather to receive food at a donation point in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
© Yasser Qudihe/Imago
Biden's attempts to maintain unwavering U.S. diplomatic and military support for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist Hamas militants are faltering.
Biden's position has become increasingly untenable as the situation in Gaza worsens.
American leadership: Aid supplies even without support from Israel
“We are not waiting for the Israelis” to provide more aid, a senior official said.
“This is the moment for American leadership, and we are building a coalition of countries to meet this urgent need.”
After the first U.S. deliveries by sea, the official said, it is hoped that other countries will join in a mission that will eventually include commercial operations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government did not immediately comment on the US announcement.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official response, said Israel "welcomes and supports" the port plans, which have been discussed and are being carried out in full coordination between the two parties.
US President Joe Biden.
© Michael Brochstein/Imago
Biden clear: No US troops in the Gaza Strip
Biden has pledged that he would not involve U.S. military troops in the war in Israel, and officials said there would be no American troops on the ground as the port facility was built.
“The proposed concept calls for the presence of U.S. military personnel on military vessels off the coast of the Gaza Strip, but does not require U.S. military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or seawall or unload relief supplies,” an official said .
“This significant effort will take several weeks to plan and execute,” the official said, adding that the necessary U.S. forces are either already in the region or will be deployed there soon.
The Pentagon declined to provide details about how, when or where - or with which military units - the facility would be built, saying more details about the mission would be released on Friday.
UN should distribute aid supplies in the Gaza Strip – truck convoys are the most effective way
The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations will distribute aid within the Gaza Strip, and Israel will provide security arrangements, the officials said.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Thursday that the United Nations welcomed "any opportunity to bring more aid to the Gaza Strip" but stressed that truck convoys were more effective.
“We have said from the beginning that we need more access points and a greater volume of relief supplies by land,” he said.
Israel has so far only allowed land transport from the southern Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom in the southeastern corner of the enclave.
Most of the aid is destined for the city of Rafah, where around 1.5 million people have fled the Gaza Strip to escape Israeli bombardment.
Israel has warned of an impending offensive in Rafah, where it says Hamas units and their leadership are hiding.
Since the Hamas terror of October 7th, humanitarian aid has been severely limited
The Gaza Strip has long been dependent on international aid.
Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which Israeli authorities said killed about 1,200 people and brought 253 hostages into the Gaza Strip, an average of about 500 trucks carrying humanitarian and commercial goods entered the enclave every day.
After the attack and the subsequent Israeli military offensive, which health authorities said killed more than 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip, both Israel and Egypt restricted access.
The average daily truck count fell to 170 in January and 98 in February, with the number in the single digits on some days.
Only a handful of convoys have reached the north, which was massively destroyed by Israeli air and ground attacks last year.
Most residents of the north have been evacuated to the south, but at least 300,000 people are believed to have found refuge under the rubble in and around Gaza City.
Israeli forces have denied or delayed access to aid convoys.
In addition, criminal gangs had hijacked the trucks that had approached the area and starving civilians were harassing the trucks.
The local police escorts had given up this task after the Israeli attacks.
Over 100 people presumably shot dead by the Israeli army while distributing aid supplies
Last week, more than 100 people died either from Israeli gunfire or from stampede when a crowd attacked a rare aid convoy in Gaza City.
The World Food Program (WFP) said a second attempt to reach the north was "largely unsuccessful" on Wednesday, with Israeli forces stopping 14 trucks that were then diverted or looted by civilians before they reached their destination.
Growing needs for food, medicine and supplies for the Gaza Strip have increased pressure on Israel and Hamas to end hostilities before the start of the fasting month of Ramadan early next week.
There is hunger in the Gaza Strip.
Now the Americans are reacting.
© Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
The Gaza port announcement came as a senior government official declined to predict whether ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages would be successful.
The terms of a tentative deal that Israel has agreed to, according to the Biden administration, include a six-week ceasefire and the release of women, children, the sick and the elderly held captive by Hamas.
There are also some Israeli soldiers among the hostages.
Some of the prisoners are presumed dead and the tentative agreement calls for the return of their bodies.
During a lull in fighting late last year, Hamas exchanged more than 100 hostages for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israel's offer to Hamas: ceasefire and hostage surrender
The official said the offer made to Hamas also included the relocation of Israeli forces from Gaza's urban areas.
This involves allowing residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes and a massive increase in humanitarian aid deliveries.
“All these points have already been negotiated,” the official said.
According to the United States and Israel, the ball is now in Hamas's court.
A Hamas official told The
Washington Post
that the group has rejected Israel's offer of a six-week ceasefire while troops remain stationed in the Gaza Strip.
The hostages continue to be held back.
“We want a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss ongoing negotiations.
A ceasefire that lasts only until Ramadan and the release of the hostages would leave Gazans without guarantees of protection when it ends, he said.
U.S. officials have said they expect a three-phase deal, with the first phase negotiating further ceasefires - and an eventual end to the war.
Israel has said it wants to return to its mission to wipe out Hamas in Rafah once it gets its hostages back.
Israel withdrew its negotiating team from talks in Cairo earlier this week.
A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Thursday for consultations with the group's political leadership in Qatar, it was reported.
Dadouch reported from Beirut.
Missy Ryan and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
To the authors
Karen DeYoung
is an associate editor and senior national security correspondent at The Post.
In more than three decades at the newspaper, she served as bureau chief in Latin America and London and as a White House, U.S. foreign policy and intelligence correspondent.
Sarah Dadouch
is the Washington Post's Middle East correspondent in Beirut.
She previously worked as a Reuters correspondent in Beirut, Riyadh and Istanbul.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on March 8, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.