According to Hamas, at least 35,272 people have been killed in Gaza. (File)
Jerusalem:
The US military said aid deliveries began on Friday from a temporary pier in Gaza, aimed at boosting emergency humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory.
“Today at approximately 9 a.m. (Gaza time), trucks carrying humanitarian aid began moving ashore through a temporary pier in Gaza,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, adding that no US troops were disembarking .
“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to provide additional assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza through a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature,” the report said.
The pier was successfully anchored on Thursday, with around 500 tonnes of aid expected to enter the Palestinian territory in the coming days.
Photos released Thursday by CENTCOM show humanitarian aid being lifted onto a barge at the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod.
The Palestinian territory is facing famine after an Israeli siege left 2.4 million people with severe shortages of food and safe water, medicine and fuel.
The arrival of occasional aid convoys has slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing last week.
The UN has said that opening land border crossings and allowing more truck convoys into Gaza is the only way to curb the spiraling humanitarian crisis.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s devastating military retaliation has killed at least 35,272 people, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
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