US plans to open temporary port in Gaza for humanitarian aid access | International

The United States is planning an “urgent” military mission to establish, in collaboration with other allies, a temporary port on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza for the entry of humanitarian aid by sea, as announced Thursday senior government officials, specifying that Washington collaborated. “very closely” with Israel in the development of the initiative. The official announcement will be made this evening during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to both houses of Congress. The initiative benefits, in principle, from the support of Israel, which “fully supports” the American plan, according to a senior official cited by the Reuters agency.

The port will be able to accommodate “large ships carrying water, food, medicine” and structures to provide shelter to Gazans displaced by the war. The main facility will be a temporary dock that will unload the equivalent of “hundreds of additional aid trucks per day.” Initially, shipments will come from the port of Larnaca on the island of Cyprus, the closest European Union country to Gaza (around 370 kilometers).

The senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not provide details on how the port quay will be built. They assured that there would be no need to deploy American soldiers on Gaza soil, in line with one of Biden’s strongest promises since the start of the conflict. They will be in structures above the sea. One of the senior officials clarified that the United States has “unique capabilities” that allow it to build this type of construction. Planning and execution of the project will require “several weeks,” or approximately 45 to 60 days. In past conflicts where U.S. forces had to build a beachhead, they installed this type of structure in the outer waters, from their ships, and moved it closer to shore.

Official Israeli sources cited by state broadcaster Kaan confirmed that the measure was coordinated with the country’s authorities, but also admitted that it was part of Washington’s dissatisfaction with the amount of aid humanitarian aid entering Gaza and distrust of Israel. increase. Senior officials in Washington stressed that they have been working with the allied country for months “to establish this mechanism.”

The challenges are enormous. It’s not just the logistical issues of building the port itself and delivering aid. It’s also a challenge how to distribute it in an area where transportation is difficult and the need is extreme. The European Commissioner for Crisis Management and Humanitarian Aid, Janez Lenarcic, admitted this Wednesday during a press conference in Jerusalem that in addition to a port in Gaza, a structure would be necessary to guarantee the orderly receipt and distribution of aid upon arrival. . “The scenes we saw, of hungry crowds running towards the parachutes landing on the ground, are not the appropriate way to handle, receive and distribute it,” he said.

Biden will make the announcement a day after the EU indicated it was considering establishing a maritime humanitarian corridor to bring aid into a Gaza Strip with severe malnutrition rates and where at least ten children have died of hunger in recent days, according to the UN World Health Organization, which denounced Tuesday that the deterioration of the nutritional status of its population during the five months of war, is “unprecedented in the world “.

The sea is the only means left to deal with land and air problems. Israeli obstacles, lack of distribution means and delivery chaos have cut road deliveries in half compared to December and January, when they were already below those needed to address the humanitarian crisis . Hungry citizens and mafias seeking to resell them on the market attack the convoys. Israeli ultranationalist groups are also focusing on the crossing to try to prevent its entry, in a position approved by the majority of the population, believing that it benefits Hamas or that it should be used to force the surrender of hostages, according to polls. . Dropping it from the air – as several countries have done in recent weeks, such as Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France and the United States – represents a meager plot, because the quantities are small.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will travel to Cyprus this Friday to study the maritime project, which has gained momentum after the deaths of more than a hundred Gazans last week, while continuing a aid convoy, including some of them. by shots from Israeli soldiers, who opened fire on unarmed civilians. Images of injury, despair and blood-stained food have heightened international concern over the humanitarian crisis, caused primarily by Israel’s decision to use hunger as a weapon of war.

The United States maintains that it continues to pressure Israel to increase the flow of aid by land. “The president asked us to look at all options and not wait for the Israelis. We are seeking all possible channels to send aid to Gaza. We will do it by air, sea, land, whatever, to get as much help as possible,” one of the sources said.

Senior officials have in fact indicated that Israel is preparing the opening of a new access point, directly to the north of Gaza (the most malnourished area), which will make it possible to “deliver aid directly to the population from the north who desperately need it.” assistance. » “It was at our request,” they say. Commissioner Lenarcic has already indicated that he had perceived an “openness” among his Israeli interlocutors to the idea of ​​allowing new access to aid.

The new port would be a key element in the Gaza panorama that the United States is preparing for the temporary ceasefire of at least six weeks between Israel and Hamas, in which it is mediating with Qatar and Egypt. The truce would increase and improve the distribution of humanitarian aid, and even the return of displaced people from this area to the north, even if most of their homes are damaged or destroyed, as Hamas has demanded. during the negotiations which took place this Thursday. in Cairo. dead end and they will not resume until Sunday. “Everything we do, including this new mission, is important to establish conditions in Gaza so that people can ultimately return to their places of residence,” noted one of the US representatives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again made it clear on Thursday that whether the truce is maintained or not, the army will invade Rafah, where the majority of Gaza’s residents are now concentrated, more than a million. “I want to tell you clearly that the army will continue to operate against all Hamas battalions throughout the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold. Anyone who tells us not to operate in Rafah is telling us to lose the war. And that’s not going to happen,” he said at a military graduation ceremony.

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