Another “Black Hawk Down”?
Since its construction was completed earlier this month, humanitarian aid entering war-torn Gaza from the U.S. military’s floating pier has been repeatedly stolen before reaching the U.N. warehouse in Deir al-Balah.
The logistical challenges of the operation, worsened by a shortage of tugboats for transporting supplies, have left troops fatigued, increasing the peril they face on the periphery of the battlefield.
Those fears materialized on Thursday when three U.S. service members suffered injures in the challenging and dangerous conditions, with one critically injured.
“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 senior U.S. military official clarified yesterday evening. 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.”
As The Daily Wire reports:
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.”
Gen. Ryder conceded that although aid had entered Gaza from the $320 million pier, none has been distributed as intended to civilians.
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