Three U.S. service members were injured during an operation supporting President Joe Biden’s plan to supply humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
“On May 23, a U.S. service member sustained a non-combat related injury aboard USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306) while in support of the humanitarian aid mission to Gaza,” a U.S. defense official claimed. “The service member was transported to a medical facility and is in critical condition at this time. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
A U.S. Central Command official said that one of the soldiers suffered an ankle injury, another a back injury, and the third was evacuated to a hospital in Israel with serious injuries.
Earlier this week, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday that none of the 569 tons of aid that had been transported to Gaza since last week has reached the Palestinian people.
“The U.S. military is delivering [the aid] to the causeway. It’s then taken by non-U.S. contractors, driven over onto shore, put into an assembly area, which is where the NGOs that are supporting this effort pick it up and take it for onward distribution,” he said. “But as I mentioned, you know, via some discussions that have happened, again, as we work out processes and procedures, alternative routes for the safe movement of that cargo have been established, and aid is now being taken from those assembly areas to warehouses for further distribution throughout Gaza.”
Reuters reported that on Saturday, 16 trucks were en route to the warehouse when 11 were overrun and “were cleaned out by Palestinians during the journey through an area that a U.N. official said has been hard to access with humanitarian aid.”
Ryder acknowledged during the press conference that the aid was “intercepted by some people who took that aid off those vehicles.”
He said that while aid was making it in, none of the aid that has come in from the pier has been distributed to civilians in Gaza.
Biden’s $320 million pier for Gaza is at risk of becoming yet another failure for the 81-year-old president as the U.N. World Food Program said it may fail because conditions on the ground in Gaza were not allowing the food to be distributed because the majority of it was being stolen.
U.S. Central Command said in an update on Thursday that 820.5 tons of aid had been offloaded from the pier and that 506 tons had successfully reached the warehouse. It’s still not clear if any of it has actually been distributed to civilians.
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