US soldiers assemble the final elements of the floating jetty built off Gaza, April 26, 2024. (Credit: US Army Central/Reuters)
Hundreds of soldiers, $320 million and almost two months. That is what it took the United States to finalize the construction of a floating jetty off the coast of Gaza to deliver vital humanitarian aid by sea to the enclave, where war has been raging for over seven months. On Thursday, the day after the pontoon was completed, the first boat left Cyprus, heading for a sea platform where it will be unloaded before the aid is transported to the Gaza coast in small vessels."Personally, I don't expect to receive any aid,” says a skeptical Um Mohammad, in her fifties, who left the al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City to take refuge in Rafah with seven other family members. "Israel asked us to head south, making us believe it was safer, but since then we haven't received any sufficient aid packages.” After more than...
Hundreds of soldiers, $320 million and almost two months. That is what it took the United States to finalize the construction of a floating jetty off the coast of Gaza to deliver vital humanitarian aid by sea to the enclave, where war has been raging for over seven months. On Thursday, the day after the pontoon was completed, the first boat left Cyprus, heading for a sea platform where it will be unloaded before the aid is transported to the Gaza coast in small vessels."Personally, I don't expect to receive any aid,” says a skeptical Um Mohammad, in her fifties, who left the al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City to take refuge in Rafah with seven other family members. "Israel asked us to head south, making us believe it was safer, but since then we haven't received any sufficient aid packages.” After more...