UN resumes transporting aid from US-built pier in Gaza after halting for two days due to looting

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations has resumed transporting humanitarian aid arriving at a US-built pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip after halting deliveries for two days because some truckloads of supplies were intercepted by Palestinians.

Aid deliveries began arriving at a US-built pier on Friday as Israel comes under growing global pressure to allow more supplies into the densely-populated coastal enclave amid the ongoing war with Hamas.

The UN has said at least 500 trucks a day are needed to enter Gaza.

Ten truckloads of aid – driven from the pier site by UN contractors – were received on Friday at a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah. But on Saturday, only five loads made it to the warehouse after 11 others were intercepted.

The UN halted transport for two days while it came up with a new route.

WFP spokesperson Shaza Moghraby says that deliveries resumed on Tuesday with 17 trucks arriving at the warehouse, while yesterday there were 27 trucks.

“All commodities have been accounted for to my knowledge and no incidents were reported,” Moghraby says, adding that some aid is for WFP to distribute, while the rest is for other aid groups operating in Gaza.

A US official says that so far some 800 metric tons of aid have been delivered off the pier to a staging area. USAID says that as of Tuesday more than 307 metric tons of aid have been transported from “to onward points in Gaza.”

The aid offloaded at the pier comes via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, where it is first inspected by Israel.