Saudi Ambassador to Egypt Saleh bin Eid Al-Husseini discussed on Wednesday the process of delivering aid to Gaza with a delegation from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, reported the Saudi Press Agency.
During the meeting, held in Cairo, Al-Husseini met with Mubarak bin Saeed Al-Dosari, KSrelief’s director of the branches department, who also led the delegation.
The parties discussed ways to collaborate to deliver humanitarian aid to those impacted by the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy head of the US Central Command, said the US military’s problem-plagued mission to bring desperately needed aid into Gaza via a temporary pier has ended, with deliveries shifting to an Israeli port.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete, so there’s no more need to use the pier. It’s now transitioning … to a port in Ashdod, Israel,” he said.
US President Joe Biden expressed disappointment in the performance of the pier, which has repeatedly broken free of the shore because of bad weather since its initial installation in mid-May, limiting the time it has been operational.
Deliveries from Cyprus to Ashdod, and then on to northern Gaza, have already begun, with more than 1 million pounds of aid moving via that route in recent weeks, said Cooper.
Distribution of aid, once it reached land, has also been a problem, with the UN World Food Programme suspending deliveries of assistance that arrived via the pier last month to assess the security situation after Israel conducted a military operation nearby.