During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon Spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder answered reporter questions on the U.S.-constructed aid pier in Gaza.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 - Can you give us a breakdown how many trucks that is?
00:03 And also, how many trucks were sort of overwhelmed
00:06 by people just grabbing the humanitarian aid?
00:09 And finally, on the causeway itself,
00:12 who's providing security for that causeway?
00:13 Is it the Israelis?
00:15 Is it private security?
00:17 Who is that entity?
00:19 - Yeah, so a couple things there, Tom.
00:21 So first of all, I would caution you
00:25 around getting focused on the number of trucks
00:29 that are going back and forth from an LSV to the shore.
00:33 I mean, it's a continuous circuit.
00:35 So the focus is on the amount of aid.
00:37 The amount of trucks is irrelevant to the amount of aid
00:41 that's going to be delivered out into the communities.
00:46 And again, let's differentiate between the trucks
00:49 that are taking it from the end of the causeway
00:51 to the assembly area.
00:52 It's two different things.
00:54 Once it gets to the assembly area,
00:56 it will be loaded onto trucks,
00:59 and that is managed by the NGOs
01:02 that will then take it off to other warehouses
01:04 throughout Gaza for further distribution.
01:07 Okay, so there's that piece.
01:08 So when I'm talking about over 596 metric tons,
01:12 that is what the US military has been able to deliver
01:15 to the end of the causeway,
01:17 and then taken by contractors into the assembly area.
01:21 In terms of security, so it's a multi,
01:24 I'm not gonna get into super specifics here,
01:27 but it's multi-pronged.
01:31 You've got the Israelis, of course,
01:33 providing security on the shore, also at sea.
01:37 And you also have US military personnel
01:41 that are able to defend themselves if they needed to,
01:43 although they're not obviously going onto the shore.
01:46 And then you also, in the maritime area there,
01:50 have US destroyers that are also patrolling
01:53 and able to provide security.
01:55 So it's a multi-step process there
02:00 in terms of providing security.
02:02 - Getting back to the metric tons,
02:03 it would be helpful, I think, if we do apples and apples.
02:06 If you're talking 90 trucks and you're gonna go up to 150,
02:09 it would just be helpful for everybody, I think,
02:12 if you just say 40 trucks got in today, 90 trucks.
02:15 - Yeah, I think what you're, again, so look,
02:19 as the amount of aid increases
02:22 into the Deliver the Causeway,
02:24 and you start to ramp up the number of trucks
02:26 that are taking the aid off the end of the causeway
02:29 and delivering it to the assembly areas,
02:32 I mean, that's an interesting factoid,
02:35 but it doesn't change what the ultimate endeavor here is,
02:38 which is to get humanitarian assistance
02:40 to the people of Gaza.
02:42 So the real key statistic here
02:45 is how much aid is being brought onto the shore
02:48 and then ultimately delivered throughout Gaza
02:51 via the NGOs to the people of Gaza.
02:53 So, again, we'll continue to keep you updated on that front.
02:56 I think what you'll see, again, is as this pier
03:00 continues to move towards full operational capability,
03:05 you'll start to see more aid coming in
03:06 and you'll start to see the numbers increase
03:09 in terms of the amount of aid
03:10 that's brought into the assembly areas.
03:11 - And lastly, on the truck issue,
03:12 how many were overwhelmed by Palestinians
03:15 grabbing this stuff, do you know?
03:16 - I've seen the reports about civilians
03:21 along some of the transportation routes out in Gaza.
03:24 Again, importantly, this is not in the causeway,
03:26 it's not in the assembly areas, it's out in Gaza.
03:29 Once it left that maritime marshalling area,
03:34 I think we can all agree that that demonstrates
03:37 the importance of making sure
03:40 that we can continue to get aid into Gaza,
03:43 not only by maritime routes, but also by land routes,
03:46 and the desperation that's out there.
03:48 So, again, as I mentioned earlier,
03:52 there's been discussions today
03:53 to look at how we can get that aid,
03:55 how the NGOs can get that aid out
03:57 into where it's needed most.
04:00 To answer your question,
04:02 I don't have the specific numbers, Liz.