The U.S. had been close to a formal agreement with an aid group to distribute food and other resources in Gaza once the military pier is established.
One of the UN organizations in discussions with the U.S. government about the project is its food assistance arm, the World Food Programme. | Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Biden administration has reached out to the United Nations to help distribute aid from a U.S. military-built pier to desperate civilians in Gaza — but the arrangement might be in peril after an Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers in the enclave on Monday.
But the Israeli strike on a convoy operated by the World Central Kitchen, the aid group founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, has complicated those discussions, according to a second U.S. official and the senior aid representatives. WFP and other groups are now pressing for additional reassurances from the U.S. for the safety of their aid workers, one of the people said. And the second U.S. official said aid groups are now questioning who they can trust.
News that the WFP is having qualms about its participation in the military’s pier project complicates President Joe Biden’s plan to mitigate the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which has become increasingly desperate as Israel refuses to open up key land routes to aid trucks. Aid groups say aThe U.S. Army ships that specialize in building temporary piers and bridges are steaming toward the Gaza coast and are expected to arrive on station as soon as the next few days, the second U.S.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development said the U.S. is “assessing options for the delivery of assistance once it reaches Gaza.” The WFP — along with many other organizations that work in Gaza — continue to press the administration to do more to get aid into the enclave by road,National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, asked by POLITICO during a news conference Wednesday if the strike would derail plans to distribute aid from the temporary pier, said the administration understands “why some aid organizations would have qualms about” operating in Gaza, but “it’s not going to stop or lessen our efforts to do what...
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