Gaza - May 23, 2024

The United Nations (UN) is planning new routes to distribute aid from a US-built pier in Gaza, a spokesman said, after crowds of needy residents intercepted trucks, causing a disruption to deliveries that continued Tuesday for a third straight day.

The temporary floating pier is intended to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, although aid workers say only deliveries across land borders can guarantee aid on the scale needed.

Operations at the dock began on Friday and the UN said 10 truckloads of food aid - transported from the dock by UN contractors - were received at a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza. But on Saturday, only five trucks arrived at the warehouse after 11 others were intercepted.

Distribution was then halted while logistics teams planned new routes and coordination of deliveries in an effort to prevent more aid from being intercepted, said Abeer Etefa, a WFP spokesman in Cairo.

"The missions were planned for today, using the new routes to avoid the crowds," he said. "So far we have not heard that they have moved."


SHOTLIST
1. various of UN humanitarian aid vehicles
2. various from the Gaza coast
3. various of ships seen from the Gaza shore
4. various of port construction