Aid groups doubt Biden's pier will solve Gaza's problems

For months, aid has idled at the border of the Gaza Strip, a territory that’s been battered by bombs, starvation, and disease since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel — and the fierce Israeli counteroffensive that’s followed. In recent weeks, the United States has announced a plan to build a floating maritime pier off of Gaza’s shore, one that it says could funnel 2 million meals to the territory’s population every day. But humanitarian organizations say a maritime corridor will do little to address the most persistent challenges in getting aid to Gaza, especially when the most efficient channels to do so — those on land — have been choked for months. “When I read about the pier, my reaction was: really?” said Deepmala Mahla, chief humanitarian officer at CARE International. “First air drops, and now a floating pier, all when we have hundreds and thousands of food and other required material just miles away from the border, all ready to get in?” The U.S. isn’t the only one trying to get aid to Gaza by sea. President Joe Biden’s plan — made public in his State of the Union address on March 7 — is part of a flurry of activity in the southeastern Mediterranean, all trying to bring supplies to the territory in new ways. Cyprus has sought international buy-in for its own large-scale maritime aid corridor, and World Central Kitchen, the relief organization led by chef José Andrés, delivered its first maritime shipment earlier this month. Though typically, any aid effort to bring supplies to those in need would be welcome, most humanitarian groups Devex spoke with can’t shake their wariness — and their worry that enhanced maritime activity would be, more than anything, a distraction from the crux of the crisis. The problem has never been about getting aid to Gaza, they say. It has been about persuading Israel to let it in. “It’s not due to the lack of supplies, and it’s not due to the lack of partners who want to bring them in,” said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the vice president of global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps. “It’s entirely due to the conditions that have been set with the entry of aid in through those land crossings — some of which, I might add, would not be different than the aid that would enter through a maritime corridor.” Blocked aid In the days following the Oct. 7 massacre, Israeli officials announced plans to impose a total siege on Gaza, preventing the entry of food, medicine, fuel, and water into the territory. It has since permitted limited assistance through the Palestinian enclave, opening up the Kerem Shalom crossing and allowing airdrops — and most recently, shipments of assistance by sea — into Gaza. But the United Nations and Western governments, including the United States, have criticized Israel’s action as woefully inadequate, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Between near-constant bombing, an onerous Israeli inspection process, and a painfully circuitous route for aid delivery, more than half of all aid missions to northern Gaza were either denied or postponed during the first two weeks of March, according to the latest update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Janti Soeripto, the chief executive officer of Save the Children, said she was shown a drawing the last time she was in the region: One that tried to depict an aid truck’s nearly weeklong journey to the people it was trying to serve. “Offload, inspect. Onload. Offload, inspect. Onload,” she said, describing the route. “Loop-de-loop via Kerem Shalom. Back to Rafah. Offload inside Gaza. Wash the truck. Onload. Switch from Egyptian drivers to Palestinian drivers. Only then, the truck is in. And then, a new process begins to get that aid actually distributed to the people who need it.” Israel has insisted that it is committed to facilitating the delivery of aid but blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute aid throughout the Gaza Strip. But the United Nations, along with humanitarian groups, say it’s the exact opposite — and that the aid effort has been crippled by both Israel’s bureaucratic hurdles and its continued bombardment. “First air drops, and now a floating pier, all when we have hundreds and thousands of food and other required material just miles away from the border, all ready to get in?” --— Deepmala Mahla, chief humanitarian officer, CARE International Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to launch a new offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Gazans are both starving and trapped. Though the Biden administration has been seeking to head off a new Israeli offensive in Rafah, Netanyahu rebuffed a personal appeal by Biden to forgo the ground invasion, claiming “there is no way” to defeat Hamas without it. That leaves humanitarian workers — and those they’re trying to save — in the balance. “The focus shouldn’t really be on the amount of aid you get to Gaza, because as long as there’s ongoing military activity in Gaza, it’s impossible for that aid to get where it should be,” said Dr. Nick Maynard, a British cancer surgeon who spent two weeks in Gaza during the war. Some days, Maynard said, he didn’t have surgical gloves. On other days, he didn’t have antibiotics. And on many more, he didn’t have morphine. But the entire time, he said he knew those resources were perhaps loitering in a storage depot, or queuing up outside lorries outside Rafah — but regardless, unable to be distributed to those who actually needed them. A diplomatic volley The latest surge in the Israel-Palestinian conflict began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militant groups launched a raid on Israel, killing more than 1,200 and taking some 200 hostages into Gaza — most of whom are still locked in the territory. Israel responded with a ferocious offensive, killing almost 32,000 Palestinians, driving 2 million from their homes, and razing much of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure to the ground. At the start of the war, the Biden administration made a fervent effort to back Israel, expediting shipments of arms sales and sending military advisers into the country, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service in October of last year. But in the months since, the U.S. tone on the conflict has changed, and the country has ramped up humanitarian efforts in the besieged Gaza Strip. Today, the U.S. is in talks with Egypt and Qatar aimed at brokering an agreement between the warring countries and linking a cease-fire with the release of more than 130 hostages. Over time, Biden’s once-close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frayed — and many feel the construction of a maritime pier is, in some ways, the result: A diplomatic gridlock, and perhaps, a performative last resort. “If anything, this move should be read as a signal of frustration and desperation [from the U.S. government] to try to break past the barriers that we have not been able to get through for the last five-ish months or so,” said Phillips-Barrasso of Mercy Corps. “I do think they’re trying, but the U.S. has to do something different than what it’s been doing before, or we can very clearly identify the trajectory of where this is going to end.” Two weeks after the pier was first announced, the humanitarian groups Devex spoke with hadn’t yet heard how their teams — who are operating in the territory — would be involved in the maritime pier process, and which parties would be handling the supplies once they actually made it to Gazan shores. U.S. officials have repeatedly said the maritime pier would involve no American boots on the ground, yet Phillips-Barrasso described aid agencies’ understanding of the process as “opaque.” The U.S. Army could not immediately be reached for comment about how maritime distributions would occur, and whether the inspection process at sea would mirror those blamed for blocking the entry of supplies on land. “You need every possible spigot open, every land crossing, and trucks pumping through those crossings and new crossings. And fine, some maritime crossings,” said Phillips-Barrasso. “But it will take the combined sum total of that — plus a cessation of hostilities — for that to be distributed adequately.” The last resort — attempted by many The U.S. government is not alone in hoping alternative routes for aid to Gaza might help alleviate suffering. At an international donors conference for Gaza last November, representatives from Cyprus outlined the broad strokes of a maritime aid corridor known as the Amalthea Initiative. That plan — which is separate from the floating pier announced by Biden, though supported by the United States, United Kingdom, and many others — includes the construction of a temporary landing zone and marshaling yard just 4 kilometers south of the Port of Gaza. In the months following Cyprus’ announcement, a private logistics and risk analysis contractor called Fogbow conducted a technical feasibility assessment to determine if it was possible to deliver aid to Gaza by sea and at scale, according to a source with direct knowledge of the effort. Fogbow — which is led by former military and intelligence professionals — determined that it was feasible, and has developed a technical operational plan for how the initiative would work. The source with direct knowledge of Fogbow’s proposal emphasized that it is not intended to replace aid delivered by land but to supplement those shipments. The source also stressed that the maritime plan intends to support existing humanitarian operations by delivering the goods and equipment they choose to prioritize. Under Fogbow’s plan, the source said humanitarian groups would be responsible for transporting materials to the port of Larnaca in Cyprus. The supplies would then undergo security screenings conducted by a team from Cyprus and supported by COGAT, the Israeli government’s unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories. The goods would then be loaded onto barges, each of which can hold up to 200, 20-foot containers, which are considered “truck equivalent units.” The source with direct knowledge of the plan said there would be three or four barges operating continuously along the roughly 24-hour route between Larnaca and Gaza. Once the shipments arrive on land, responsibility for determining where the goods would go and how to get them there would be turned over to humanitarian organizations running relief operations on the ground, who would also be expected to operate the same deconfliction and notification procedures already required to operate during the crisis. The source noted that while Fogbow would not be involved in ground delivery, the maritime route could be used for transporting equipment, such as vehicles, to support those efforts. But to many, all of that doesn’t address the real problem. “Israel will not let them in. There are vehicles on the border. They’re not letting them in,” said Tom Hart, CEO of InterAction, a U.S. coalition of nongovernmental organizations. “What we’re going to have is a pile of supplies to save lives on land borders, and now on the shore.”