CNN
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Maritime support deliveries to Gaza resumed Saturday after a US-built momentary pier was repaired a day prior, US Central Command introduced.
Almost 500 metric tons, or over 1,000,000 kilos, of support was delivered starting Saturday morning native time, CENTCOM stated in a post on X, the primary supply because the pier broke aside final month.
The supply got here the identical day the Israeli navy rescued 4 hostages in an operation that authorities in Gaza stated killed 236 people and injured greater than 400 others.
CENTCOM made it clear Saturday that the pier, “together with its gear, personnel, and belongings,” was not used within the operation.
“The momentary pier on the coast of Gaza was put in place for one goal solely, to assist transfer extra, urgently wanted lifesaving help into Gaza,” CENTCOM stated in a separate post on X.
And a US official instructed CNN on Saturday that the pier, referred to as Joint Logistics Over the Shore, or JLOTS, was not used within the operation. “It’s our understanding that IDF didn’t use a automobile with humanitarian markings, or any humanitarian platform, together with the JLOTS facility, to conduct hostage rescue operations,” the official stated.
The pier, used along with dropping support out of planes and trucking it by way of border checkpoints, sustained harm and broke aside in heavy seas late final month. Within the lower than two weeks the pier was operational, it helped ship some 1,000 metric tons of support to Gaza.
The US had confronted a number of challenges with the pier, together with planning round Israel’s operations in Rafah, establishing who would transport the help from the pier into Gaza, and logistical points akin to sea and climate circumstances.
Eight months into the Israel-Hamas struggle, human rights teams have described “unspeakable” dwelling circumstances in Gaza. The United Nations’ meals company warned in May that Palestinians within the north are below a “full-blown famine” that’s spreading south, and greater than 1 million individuals, half of Gaza’s inhabitants, are “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July, a UN report warned this week.
Whereas Israeli officers have insisted there is no such thing as a restrict on the quantity of support that may enter Gaza, the UN has accused authorities of imposing “unlawful restrictions” on reduction operations, together with blocked land routes, communications blackouts and air strikes.
The US has made quite a few air drops of humanitarian support into Gaza in partnership with the Royal Jordanian Air Drive, although they have been suspended in latest weeks attributable to navy operations within the north of Gaza, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper stated Friday. Air drops are anticipated to renew “within the coming days,” he stated.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Philip Wang, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Rachel Wilson and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.