Hamas Fires On American-Built Pier For Humanitarian Aid

The Americans have begun to build their “humanitarian aid” floating pier in Gaza, designed to bring more aid much faster to Gazans in need. Israel, of course, welcomes the move, for it wants that aid to come in as fast as possible, and without having to run the gauntlet of Hamas operatives stealing aid for themselves, their extended families, and their clans. But Hamas is not pleased, for precisely that reason. It wants all humanitarian aid to have to go through channels it controls. The pier will allow aid to be directly offloaded from ships to trucks, and distributed directly to aid groups for distribution, bypassing Hamas. Hamas has been firing at those starting to build the pier. More on this can be found here: “IDF rescues UN officials from terrorist mortar fire at Gaza aid pier,” JNS, April 26, 2024:

Israel Defense Forces troops secured U.N. officials who came under mortar fire on Wednesday when touring a pier being constructed by U.S. military personnel off the coast of the Gaza Strip to increase the amount of aid flowing into the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF soldiers rushed the officials to shelter after Palestinian terrorists launched projectiles at the installation.

Here is the IDF, securing the lives of officials from the UN, an organization that is implacably hostile to Israel. One hopes some of those officials will take note of the IDF’s helping to save their lives, and also of the fact that it was a Palestinian terror group, Hamas, that had been launching projectiles at them.

The terrorist organizations continue to systematically harm humanitarian efforts while risking the lives of U.N. workers, even as Israel allows the supply of aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip,” according to the IDF.

Hamas interferes with the distribution of food and other humanitarian aid, halting aid trucks and seizing what it wants for its own operatives, their families, and their clans, and only after that lion’sshare has been taken are ordinary Gazans given what remains.

The Israeli military previously confirmed that troops would provide “security and logistical support” for the project, “further demonstrating the IDF’s commitment to working with the international community to ensure the continuous entry of humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”…

The United States hopes to begin delivering aid using the new pier by early May. A senior American official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity on Thursday, said the sea route will initially total 90 trucks daily which could quickly rise to about 150.

The official suggested the mortar attack was not connected to the humanitarian mission, adding that security for the pier will be “far more robust” when the aid begins flowing.

I disagree. I think the mortar attack on the unfinished floating pier was launched by Hamas, and designed to discourage the Americans from completing the project. And when the pier is completed, Hamas will likely continue to shell it, so as to make it more difficult both to offload the aid and to transmit it to waiting trucks. The mortar attack was thus “connected to the humanitarian mission” by making operation of the floating pier more dangerous. Hamas has no interest in increasing aid for the Gazans; it benefits from the tales of mass food insecurity, even famine, in the Strip. As long as its own operatives get abundantly fed, it doesn’t worry about any of the others living in Gaza. In fact, the more food insecurity there is in Gaza — what Hamas inaccurately calls “famine”— the greater the gain by Hamas in the propaganda war with the IDF.

In his March 7 State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the establishment of a floating pier to deliver supplies.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant welcomed the initiative, saying that it would help collapse Hamas.

“We will ensure that the aid reaches those to whom it should get to and that it does not reach those to whom it should not get to,” he added….

The IDF clearly wants this floating pier idea to succeed, so that another 150 trucks can come into the Strip each day, full of food and other humanitarian aid, that will be directly distributed to civilians, without Hamas being in control. And Hamas, of course, wants the project to fail, because it wants sole control over the distribution of humanitarian aid going to Gaza, which allows its operatives to help themselves to much of it. Hence these mortar barrages at the floating pier that is still under construction. But the IDF has already begun to serve as the guardian of the floating pier, defending it against incoming artillery fire and drones.

I haven’t seen a single story, outside of the Jewish News Service, about this attack by Hamas on the floating pier being built in Gaza, and on the UN officials visiting it, nor a word about how Hamas is attacking, and the IDF has been protecting, the site. I wonder why this story has attracted so little attention. Could it be because it puts the IDF in a good light, and Hamas in a bad one?