Recently the Biden administration elevated humanitarian aid to Gaza as a foreign policy priority amidst ongoing negotiations for hostages and an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire. The talking point of aid to Gaza is nothing new; international outcry from Israel’s adversaries, UNWRA, Amnesty International, and Islamic charities have been propagating a narrative of famine and poverty in Gaza due to an Israeli “total blockade.”
On April 24, Hamas launched a rocket attack on the beach where UN officials were touring the prepared site for the pier connection.
The U.S. Navy’s current Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) initiative — consisting of a floating humanitarian pier connected to a landside cargo facility in central Gaza — perhaps unintentionally gives the impression that an international, U.S.-led intervention was necessary to break the alleged blockade. But following President Biden’s announcement of the JLOTS initiative on March 8, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) threw in its support, “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 IDF reported. Furthermore, the IDF “will operate to provide security and logistics support for the JLOTS initiative,” which is scheduled for completion by the end of this week.
Often lost in the fog of this war are the tireless efforts taken by the IDF to alleviate civilian suffering and facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza. In reality, the JLOTS project essentially debunks the blockade myth, stands as a prime exhibit of U.S.-Israeli humanitarian cooperation, and clears the fog to reveal the IDF’s ongoing humanitarian mission.
Prior to Israel’s advance into northern Gaza on October 21, the IDF and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) embarked on a mass information campaign via text messages, public announcements, and leaflets informing Gazan civilians of infiltration areas and humanitarian refuge points that provide food, medical attention, and lodging. COGAT also facilitated the transit of aid trucks across Israel from Jordan and shipments from UAE and other Arab allies to Egypt where, after undergoing security inspections for arms and explosives, entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing. To reach northern Gaza, convoys accessed the humanitarian corridor established and maintained by the IDF as per the Geneva Convention which requires the “rapid and unimpeded passage” of humanitarian aid to civilians. Numerous airdrops from international suppliers accompanied these shipments although, often conducted without coordinated ground support, frequently missed drop points and resulted in casualties.
A maritime corridor between Larnaca, Cyprus, and a makeshift jetty in central Gaza was also established in March for the World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) aid vessels Jennifer and Open Arms to transport pallets of foodstuffs. As of April, close to 300,000 tons (more than 12,000 trucks) of aid, including food, water, medical, and shelter supplies entered Gaza from international suppliers under IDF and COGAT logistical support and security. In response, U.S. State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller stated that Israel has not been found “in violation [of international law], either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
The WCK suspended humanitarian activities from April 1 through the 27th following the IDF’s accidental targeting of a convoy, killing seven aid workers, an unfortunate incident that incited other agencies to reduce humanitarian activity and instigated public fear of impending famine and starvation. The Jennifer and Open Arms combined load capacity, however, is around 600 tons. While an average freight truck carries approximately twenty tons, the WCK’s suspension of activity only amounted to a deficit of about thirty freight trucks per day. What failed to reach most news outlets, however, was that through late April, an average of 400 humanitarian trucks per day still arrived in Gaza from other sources and international suppliers. While the WCK incident was certainly a tragedy, the subsequent three-week suspension of aid was a far cry from instigating famine.
Ahead of the JLOTS pier, the Israeli cabinet also approved the use of the Ashdod port located twenty-four miles north of Gaza (and the target of repetitive Hamas rockets) to receive humanitarian deliveries for Gaza. On April 27, Jennifer left Larnaca for the first time in three weeks loaded with aid organized by the UAE and the American Near East Refugee Aid bound for Ashdod. The cargo from Jennifer and other vessels soon calling at Ashdod will be inspected by Israeli security before being loaded onto trucks for the new Kerem Shalom humanitarian border crossing recently opened by the IDF in southern Gaza.
On his latest visit to Israel on April 30, Secretary of State Blinken toured the Ashdod port and the Kerem Shalom crossing. The sole hindrance now to the Ashdod corridor and the JLOTS operational success is security. While the world is busy blaming Israel for its alleged military blockade, Hamas has been attacking humanitarian corridors, successfully confiscating aid deliveries by force, and withholding it from civilians in areas such as Rafah where they still maintain control. To prohibit Hamas from foiling the JLOTS initiative, the IDF has dedicated a reserve brigade, naval ship, and aircraft to provide round-the-clock security for the U.S. and UN construction workers on the floating pier and beachhead facility.
On April 24, Hamas launched a rocket attack on the beach where UN officials were touring the prepared site for the pier connection. On May 3, after the reopening of the Erez crossing for humanitarian purposes, cameras captured Hamas militants confiscating the first shipments of aid. Two days later, Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigade fired fourteen rockets from Rafah at aid assembly points at Kerem Shalom killing four IDF soldiers and closing the crossing while shipments from Ashdod were scheduled to arrive. As noted by one popular Gazan Facebook account, “Hamas inadvertently helped [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu by launching rockets from Rafah toward the crossing that brings in goods.”
The Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings reopened on May 9 to welcome trucks from Egypt carrying food, water, shelter equipment, and medical supplies ahead of the JLOTS pier going fully operational and the IDF’s potential intervention in Rafah.
Although the best solution to end the humanitarian crisis is for the war to end, it’s a fallacy to say that Israel has been non-compliant or obstructive to the flow of aid to Gaza. And while relief organizations across the world continue to promote an alleged Israeli “total blockade” as the culprit of the crisis, there is relative silence for the 100-plus civilian Israeli hostages held in Hamas captivity for over six months whose condition, proof of life, or whereabouts remain unknown.
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