Pentagon faces concern over aid worker safety as temporary pier nears full operational capacity

The Pentagon said US Central Command successfully anchored the temporary Trident pier to the beach in Gaza on Thursday with assistance from Israel Defense Forces engineers who received mission-specific training from US Army engineers in Israel.

In the coming days, aid will be offloaded from ships at a floating roll-on-roll-off distribution facility, ferried to the Trident pier and will then be driven to shore in Gaza where USAID and the UN will handle distribution, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters during a news briefing Thursday afternoon. 

"For weeks, we have been working side-by-side with the USAID team, the Cypriots, the Israelis and the United Nations to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza," Singh said. "Today, we have hundreds of tons of aid ready for delivery and 1000s of tons of aid in the pipeline. 

Once ships are able to get to the pier and transport aid onto the pier the delivery will happen quickly, according to Singh, with an initial 90 trucks of aid driving to shore per day eventually ramping up to 150 trucks per day.  

Singh said the trucks will be able to reach the populations that need it most, including Northern Gaza. 

A timeline for the temporary pier has yet to be addressed other than plans to operate throughout the summer. 

Pentagon confident in capabilities of pier and flow of aid 

The Pentagon is confident aid will flow into Gaza without any stoppage from Israel. 

The IDF has given the US military assurances it will provide security to US forces operating on the temporary floating causeway 

Deconfliction cells have been set up in both Israel and Cyprus to ensure that the US, IDF,  NGO partners and the UN are all in communication with one another to ensure the aid is delivered safely. 

Reporters pressed Singh to ensure that Israel won't attack the aid convoys leaving the marshalling area. 

"We should not see, and we don't want to see, what has happened previously," Singh said in reference to Israeli attacks on aid workers. "We want to be able to see humanitarian aid reach those who need it most in the most efficient manner possible."

Singh emphasized the amount of aid trucks coming off the pier will not be the same amount as what can come from the land crossings. 

"We have to see those land routes open," Singh said. "The quickest way to get aid in, whether it be the north or anywhere else in Gaza, is going to be through those land routes. This is just meant to be an additive measure."