Israeli forces battled Hamas militants in both the north and south Gaza Strip on Friday as trucks began delivering aid shipments through a U.S.-built temporary pier off the embattled enclave.
Vehicles ferrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore via the pier at 9 a.m. local time, according to U.S. Central Command.
The floating pier was pre-assembled by the U.S. military at the Israeli port of Ashdod and moved to the shore of Gaza this week, allowing for aid deliveries by several countries and humanitarian organizations, CENTCOM said. No U.S. troops went ashore, it added.
The World Food Program said that the aid that came through the floating dock on Friday was transported to its warehouses in Deir al-Balah and is ready to be collected and distributed by its partners.
Supplies will be subject to Israeli security checks in Cyprus before arriving on the pier and will have to go through additional Israeli checkpoints once they land, U.S. administration officials have said.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the United States remains "vigilant to potential threats to the armed service members that are working on the pier and humanitarian aid organizations and workers helping with the distribution."
Despite the new aid route, the U.N. said that truck convoys arriving by land were the "most viable, effective and efficient" method of getting aid into Gaza.
"To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza – and for that, we need access by land now," U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
Fierce battles throughout the enclave have hampered humanitarian aid deliveries, and aid groups warn that conditions are too dangerous and unstable for workers to safely be delivering assistance there.
The Rafah crossing — a key humanitarian aid corridor on the Egyptian border — has been closed since the Israeli military launched what it called a limited operation in Rafah city on May 7, sparking an exodus of Palestinians seeking safety farther north in Gaza.
The United Nations and other aid groups have said that Israel needs to do more to get aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by the war since Israel launched its military operation in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Hamas has been designated a terror organization by the U.S., the U.K. and other countries.
Israel has said it is stepping up efforts to get aid into Gaza, and the military said 365 aid trucks had entered through the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossing points Thursday, carrying flour and fuel.
In addition, hundreds of tents were delivered, intended for people evacuated from Rafah to the Al-Mawasi area, which Israel has declared a humanitarian zone.
The Israel Defense Forces "will continue its efforts to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, in accordance with international law," it said in a statement.
Fierce battles
Meanwhile, Israeli forces were entangled in fierce urban warfare Friday in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia against reemerging Hamas cells in northern Gaza.
Israeli armored vehicles rolled into the heart of the city, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and bulldozers were flattening homes and shops in the path of the advance, said residents in the area.
At the southern end of Gaza, Israel has been carrying out a military operation in Rafah that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded parts of Rafah on Friday, while the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were firing anti-tank missiles and mortars at forces massing to the east, southeast and inside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israeli forces recovered the bodies of three hostages from the Gaza Strip, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday. The military did not say where the bodies were found in Gaza.
The White House on Friday called the discovery of the bodies "horrible news."
"Our hearts go out to the families who were having to deal with this terrible news," Kirby told reporters.
Hagari identified the hostages as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter, who he said were killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival and had their bodies taken into Gaza.
The White House said it was sending national security adviser Jake Sullivan to the Middle East this weekend for talks on the seven-month war. Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
The war was triggered by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s subsequent counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which includes civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead are women and children.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
