With aid headed to Gaza, hurdles remain to getting food to its starving population
NITZANA, Israel-Egypt border — Airdropping aid packages from planes, U.S. military and NGO boats working independently to deliver aid by sea, and now the U.N. food agency has finally managed to get aid in by land. Multiple international efforts are afoot to bring desperately needed food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, but significant hurdles remain in the way.
Last week, President Biden announced the military will build a floating pier for aid deliveries off Gaza's coast, as his administration has grown frustrated urging the Israeli government to enable humanitarian relief to reach the population in the enclave. But the pier won't be ready for several weeks.
Israel destroyed the Port of Gaza during the war, and the waters along the Gaza Strip are shallow, so there's a logistical challenge to bringing goods ashore from large ships.
In a separate mission, a humanitarian ship is pulling a barge loaded with food for Gaza, which is expected to arrive a jetty to unload it and then put it onto trucks for delivery.
