5 of 16 Sitting Ducks Made it to the Warehouse

NRI fellow Jim Geraghty in NRO reports on the Pentagon’s conceding that as far as it can tell none of the aid offloaded at the new Gaza pier has been properly distributed to needy Palestinians. No one is stealing, of course, just self-distributing.

Who Offloaded the Aid 

The Pentagon concedes that as far as it can tell, none of the aid offloaded at the new Gaza pier has been properly distributed to needy Palestinians.

• Spokesman: There’s been no new arrival of trucks on the floating pier since Saturday.

Question: And was the aid from those trucks actually delivered to the warehouse or to anybody on land?

• Spokesman: On Friday, there were about 10 trucks that made it. On Saturday, there were 16 trucks that left the floating pier. But 11 of those trucks never made it to the warehouse. Crowds had stopped the trucks at various points along the way. There was, you know, what I think I would refer to as self-distribution. These trucks were traveling through areas where there’d been no aid. I think people feared that they would never see aid. They grabbed what they could. So, only 5 of the 16 trucks made it to the warehouse.

Question: And has there been any distribution of any of that aid?

• Spokesman: The aid is then . . . basically, WFP drops off the aid at its warehouse, and its local partners then distribute the aid as they can. But I don’t have that sort of granularity. I think, you know, the fact that the trucks didn’t make it underscores the need for consistent delivery of aid and obviously for a ceasefire so we have access to aid that is needed — so people know that when they see a truck, there will be more trucks, that there is more aid in the pipeline, and it’s not just a one off.

Question: And just one final question.  Who was responsible for security for those trucks?

What? No Armed Security

Spokesman: There is no . . . we don’t have any armed security. We operate separately, obviously, from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). So, part of it is the work that we do with various community groups and humanitarian partners so that people understand where these trucks are coming from and where they’re going and what they’re being used for.