Critics point out aid infrastructure already exists but that Israel keeps attacking and obstructing it.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce during his State of the Union address Thursday night that the U.S. military will construct a temporary port on Gaza’s coastline to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance, a plan that critics said is a far cry from what’s needed to end Israel’s forced starvation of the enclave’s population.
It’s expected to take up to two months for large aid packages to begin flowing through the seaport, which a White House official said would be able to “receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to demand Israel let in aid right now while Palestinian children are literally being starved to death?” asked Josh Ruebner, an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University and former policy director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “Waiting 45-60 days to build a temporary pier doesn’t help Palestinians starving to death today.”
“Besides, how are you going to offload the aid from the pier to the land given that Israel shoots at Palestinian boats all the time?” Ruebner continued. “And even if you get the aid to land, how does it get distributed to those most in need? Maybe you should have thought about that before you cut off aid to UNRWA, the only agency able to distribute aid throughout the Gaza Strip.
