Humanitarian aid began trickling back into the devastated Gaza Strip on Saturday via a rebuilt, temporary pier, US forces said.
The pier, built by the US military to boost the delivery of direly needed relief supplies, was only briefly operational before it suffered storm damage at the end of May. After repairs, the pipeline was reestablished on Friday.
Crews delivered about 492 tonnes (1.1 million pounds) of “much needed humanitarian assistance” via the pier on Saturday morning, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a social media post.
Aid groups and the United Nations have accused Israel of delaying the entry of water, food, medicines and fuel into Gaza, depriving the territory’s 2.4 million people of lifesaving supplies.
The resumption of the pier comes the same day that Israel mounted an operation in central Gaza to rescue four hostages from a refugee camp where a Hamas-run media office reported the attacks killed 210 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more.
CENTCOM stressed that the pier, its personnel and assets were in no way connected to the hostage rescue operation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced regular protests demanding a ceasefire deal to bring the captives home, with demonstrators rallying again on Saturday in Tel Aviv.
“Noa (Argamani) is home! We want all of them!” read one banner at the protest.
On Saturday Netanyahu pledged to return the rest of the captives.
His office also released a video of him speaking with Argamani on a mobile telephone.
She said she was “very excited” to return home, adding: “I haven’t spoken Hebrew in such a long time.”
US President Joe Biden welcomed the rescue operation, saying: “We won’t stop working until all the hostages are home and a ceasefire is reached. That’s essential to happen.”
He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: “We rejoice at the release of the four Israeli hostages.”
Near Nuseirat on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw scores of Palestinians fleeing the Bureij camp on foot, fearing further Israeli strikes.
The operation came days after the Israeli strike on the Nuseirat school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which a Gaza hospital said had killed 37 people.
UNRWA condemned Israel for striking a facility it said had been housing 6,000 displaced people.
Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational centres, charges that the Hamas and its allies deny.
The attacks have brought widespread devastation to Gaza, with one in 20 people dead or wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced.
Gaza City resident Yussef al-Dalu said his neighbour’s house had been reduced to rubble in an overnight air strike. Emergency services reported five dead.
“Only defenceless civilians live in this house who are not part of any resistance (group),” Dalu told AFP.
