STAFF: Good morning. This is Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon deputy press secretary. I'll be facilitating today's on-the-record call.
Joining us today is Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, and Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander, United States Central Command. As a reminder, today's call is on the record.
I know we have many questions queued up, so please, I ask that you keep your follow-ups to a minimum and please keep your microphones on mute unless you're asking a question.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Korde to start us off, followed by Vice Admiral Cooper.
SONALI KORDE: Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me?
STAFF: We can hear you.
MS. KORDE: Great, thank you. So thank you for joining us today. We will be providing an update on our efforts to move assistance into Gaza by the maritime humanitarian corridor. This is necessary because of the absolutely dire conditions in Gaza. Conditions on the ground have not improved, and in the past two weeks, we have seen a vital corridor crossing close and aid supply decline at a time when it is critical we see more aid move.
Across Gaza, 2.2 million people, the entire population, is facing acute food insecurity. More than half of the population in the north is at catastrophic levels, and I want to underscore just how dire this is for the most vulnerable, particularly mothers and children, and that is who we are particularly focused on reaching with our assistance.
As humanitarian needs continue to skyrocket, the United States is working tirelessly to surge assistance through all available means to address the impacts of this crisis. To mitigate and counter the threat of famine and extreme food insecurity, humanitarian organizations are working to increase lifesaving food assistance, but food alone is not enough. We also need nutritional treatment, clean water and support for healthcare workers to reach mothers and children and prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation. We need to ensure that the most vulnerable have access to the assistance they need and alleviate the immense suffering in Gaza.
USAID has been working with the Department of Defense to establish the humanitarian maritime corridor to augment, not replace ongoing efforts to scale the delivery of humanitarian aid by land. With the pier now in place, which Vice Admiral Cooper will speak to in greater detail, we are now beginning to load assistance to travel through the humanitarian corridor. We expect aid to begin arriving ashore in the coming days.
The maritime corridor and temporary pier will assist humanitarian organizations deliver lifesaving assistance that is arriving in Cyprus, where it will be screened for loading onto ships for delivery to Gaza by sea. Currently, we are providing nutrient-rich food bars for 11,000 of the most vulnerable, ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat 7,200 children with the most life-threatening forms of malnutrition and enough relief supplies like hygiene kits for 30,000 people through the humanitarian corridor. Other donor nations and partners are also providing much-needed lifesaving supplies.
Once these supplies arrive in Gaza, humanitarian organizations, including trusted USAID partners, will determine how to ensure they reach those in greatest need in an independent, neutral and impartial manner consistent with humanitarian principles. This is a complex aid mission that requires continuous coordination between many partners. The support and contributions of the United Nations, the government of Cyprus and other international partners, including the U.K., E.U., UAE and France, just to name a few, is vital.
Uniting all of us and underpinning this entire mission is a commitment to save lives. It is critical that humanitarian workers are able to safely deliver and distribute lifesaving systems from the maritime corridor and throughout Gaza in line with humanitarian principles, and we will continue to advocate for increased measures to provide greater assurances for those working on the ground at personal risk to do so.
While aid has increasingly entered Gaza in recent weeks, more needs to be done now, especially in light of recent setbacks. We have and will continue to engage all stakeholders to help address the needs of Gazans, especially the women and children. We thank all of the partners who have supported the maritime humanitarian corridor and will work to continue to surge in assistance, protect all humanitarian actors and activities, open all land crossings and remove impediments to the delivery of aid so that it reaches every vulnerable person: mothers, children, elderly and disabled. There's no time to lose and no effort can be spared. Thank you very much.
VICE ADMIRAL BRAD COOPER: Okay, thanks so —
(UNKNOWN): (inaudible) —
ADM. COOPER: Thanks very much, Sonali. Brad Cooper here. Thanks for the opportunity to discuss this very important effort.
I'll lead off by saying there's been incredible progress made on delivering humanitarian assistance from the sea to the people of Gaza. In this context, USAID has the lead for the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and as directed by the secretary of defense, supporting USAID efforts to supply humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza is a top priority for U.S. Central Command.
Let me be absolutely clear: The U.S. military's only role in this effort is to provide our unique logistics capability to enable the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza by USAID and our international partners.
International efforts are underway to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza through all available routes, including by land, by air, and now by sea. We are focused on flooding the zone with humanitarian assistance. This is the policy of our government.
To compliment the provision of aid through land routes, which we know is the most efficient and effective pathway to move the necessary volume of assistance, we are pursuing multiple methods to deliver aid into Gaza, from the air and now from the sea.
To date, the U.S., with over a dozen partners, has executed 38 humanitarian airdrop missions. These missions have focused on dropping humanitarian assistance from the air predominantly into north Gaza. With our partners, we have cumulatively provided more than 3 million meals into Gaza by airdrops, more than one million of which have been from the U.S. Airdrops continues, and we are committed to successful delivery of aid from the sea as well.
So (Lyle ?), let's focus on the maritime aid delivery route. Back in March, the President of the United States directed establishment of a temporary pier for delivery of aid into Gaza. We know at the time that it would take about two months to come to fruition.
I'm proud of our team who completed building the floating pier last week. The pieces of this pier were loaded aboard ships on the east coast of the United States, transported 6,000 miles across the ocean, and principally assembled off the coast of Gaza. Assembly of the final few pieces took place in the Port of Ashdod.
All the pieces of this temporary pier, along with a large, separate floating platform, were part of a military logistics capability called JLOTS, Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore. This morning, just a few hours ago, the pier was successfully affixed to the beach in Gaza, and in the coming days, we will commence the delivery of aid.
Before I dive into more details, I would like to highlight just a few key points.
First, the pier is only being assembled to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. It has no other purpose. The pier is temporary in nature. This maritime route is additive and is not meant to replace land routes into Gaza.
This is an internationally-backed effort coordinated with the United Nations. The U.S. military is simply providing logistics support to enable international donors to flow their aid into Gaza from the sea. And said a different way, we're simply enabling a shared service for the international community to use to serve the people of Gaza. And finally, there will be no U.S. military boots on the ground in Gaza.
Delivering humanitarian aid from the sea is unique and complex, and for context, there are 1,000 U.S. soldiers and sailors committed to this mission, and 14 U.S. and partner nation ships of various sizes are solely focused on this one mission to deliver assistance to the people of Gaza. Three additional U.S. ships will join in the coming week. The UK is providing a ship, the RFA Cardigan Bay, for logistics support, for which we're grateful, and we also expect others to join here in the coming days as we go forward.
Okay, now let me take a moment just to describe how the overall process of the delivery of aid into Gaza by the sea works in execution. I've described this before but I think it's worth going through one more time.
First, humanitarian assistance comes into Cyprus via air or sea, where it is screened, palletized, and prepared for delivery. Pallets of aid are then loaded onto large commercial and military vessels that travel from Cyprus to a large floating platform that we have assembled and is anchored several kilometers, several miles off the coast of Gaza.
This floating platform acts as a stable work space to transload pallets from the larger commercial ships onto smaller U.S. military vessels that can reach closer to shore. These smaller ships can carry between five and 15 trucks of aid and are called LSVs or LCUs in military jargon.
The smaller ships then shuttle these trucks with aid from the floating platform to a temporary pier. Basically, this is a floating causeway that is several hundred meters long that is now fixed to the beach in Gaza.
So the aid goes from the floating platform to trucks that are on the small ships to the floating causeway, down the causeway, onto land, and then the commodities are dropped off. These trucks repeat this process over and over in a closed loop. Separately, ashore, the United Nations will oversee receipt of humanitarian aid for onward distribution inside Gaza, as Sonali described.
This process works and is working now. As of today, we have hundreds of tons of aid on ships in the Eastern Mediterranean ready for delivery. Thousands of tons of aid are in the pipeline. We're seeing significant volumes of aid flow into Cyprus for further distribution, and we expect this flow will continue as more international donors contribute.
Israel and the Republic of Cyprus in particular have been highly supportive of this overall effort to establish a maritime corridor. Given this strong support, we have two coordination cells in place, one in Cyprus and one in Israel.
Both locations support USAID efforts and integrate with Cypriot, as well as Israeli partners respectfully, and we also integrate with the UN and other NGOs to ensure there's a smooth flow of commodity from Cyprus to the Gaza shore and that the coordination mechanisms are in place for distribution within Gaza.
Further, this effort to deliver humanitarian assistance from the sea is fully supported by the Israeli Defense Force. Israel has dedicated a brigade of troops, ships, and air force assets solely focused on the force protection of this operation. We have been working closely with the Israeli Defense Force for six weeks to ensure every aspect of logistics operations, command and control, communications, and force protection are in place.
IDF engineers prepared the beach at Gaza and secured the temporary pier to the beach. This group of engineers were especially trained for this mission by U.S. Army engineers in the preceding weeks on a beach in Israel.
As I mentioned, force protection is a top priority. We take the security of our service members and the humanitarian partners in the vicinity of the JLOTS area and marshaling yard very seriously. With the IDF, we have developed the comprehensive security plan across multiple domains — land, sea, and air — to protect our service members from potential threats, and integrates fully with the Israeli army, navy, and air force.
We've conducted force protection rehearsals in preparation for the commencement of the operations in the coming days, and we'll continue to assess and re-assess security to inform our operations every single day. Alongside the IDF, UN, USAID, we've also developed protocols for checkpoint and convoy monitoring around the pier and marshal area.
As a point of emphasis, this is a 100 percent humanitarian mission, and any attack on those working on it is an attack on aid for the people of Gaza. For weeks, we've been working side-by-side with the USAID team, with them in the lead. We've been working with the Cypriots, the Israelis, and the United Nations to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. These efforts include briefings, the large multinational gatherings in Cyprus, and the international ambassadors to the United Nation in New York City.
With that, I'd just like to leave you with a couple of final thoughts. Number one, force protection is our top priority. Number two, this temporary pier is built for the express purpose of delivering humanitarian aid to help the people of Gaza. Number three, aid is ready for delivery, already loaded on ships off the coast. Delivery of aid ashore will begin soon. And number four, this is an international effort and we appreciate the contributions of all our international partners.
Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to taking questions.
STAFF: Thank you both. We have many questions, so I'm going to try and get through as many as possible that we can in the limited time that we have today. Starting us off, we'll go to Tara Copp, Associated Press.
Q: Hi. Thank you both for doing this briefing this morning. First question, Ms. Korde, there's a lot we know about how everything gets to the pier and how it will be secured up to the marshaling point. But what assurances have aid groups been given on how security will work once those trucks are actually moving through Gaza?
What — is IDF going to be providing security for those convoys?
How is the communication going to work?
And are you concerned that the — the mile beyond the marshaling area is still a big unknown?
MS. KORDE: Hi, thank you for your question. So let me just start by saying the safety and security of our partners, our humanitarian partners is of utmost concern, always top of mind, for all of us in the humanitarian community.
And the principle that we're working on here is that the humanitarian community and the U.N., which will take the lead on distributing the aid in support of humanitarian organizations, should be able to do so in an independent, neutral and safe manner.
The U.N. has already had protocols in place and has been working on distributing aid, really, since the start of this war. The — as Admiral Cooper said, protocols have been developed for convoy checkpoints and other procedures to support the security of the U.N. partners distributing it. And that's not just for the maritime corridor. These protocols need to simply be extended across the board for movements, for safe movements throughout Gaza.
But the key point here is that the U.N. and the humanitarian NGOs have been working in a very complex and dangerous operating environment since the start of the war. They will continue to do so, and we support their movement going forward, as they see fit, to reach those most in need.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Idrees Ali, Reuters.
Q: Hey, two questions. Firstly, are you concerned that you may run out of fuel or run low on fuel in the coming days, once the pier reaches — aid reaches the pier, and then, sort of, distributing it into Gaza?
And can you just give us a rough estimate of how long do you believe it will take for — for the aid to be on the pier to then be in the hands of Palestinians?
Is that a matter of hours, or can you give us a, sort of, time frame for that?
MS. KORDE: So I can take the first question, and then turn it over to Admiral Cooper if he has anything more to say.
So, yes, as you're all aware, fuel — getting fuel into Gaza is something that we're all focused on right now, as the humanitarian community. And we are working closely with the U.N. and the Israeli government on making sure that that happens.
And, again, this is why we have to just emphasize again the importance of making sure that all of the land crossings are both open but also being utilized fully.
So thank you for that question, but we are working on it and expect that we should have the fuel necessary to operate the pier.
We expect the aid to be coming into Gaza over the next few days. I'll turn it over to Admiral Cooper to see if he has got anything further to add on that.
ADM. COOPER: I think I would simply add that we expect this process to move quickly from over the beach, a hand-over to U.N. and partners and quickly dispatched. We don't envision a model where things stay on the beach.
So things will move out of the marshaling area very quickly, certainly within hours.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Courtney Kube, NBC.
Q: Hi, I'm sorry, I'm here. Admiral Cooper, the — can you — we've seen that there's been this delay in — in stabbing the beach and setting this up for the past several days that's been attributed by DOD officials to weather.
And I wonder if — if the weather kicks back up again and the sea state is high, does that mean that the — the causeway and the dock have to be moved again, or can — can they stay in place during — during bad weather?
And — and, Ms. Korde, I'm — you painted this picture at the very top in your opening remarks of a situation where the aid has been slowing down in recent days. And I wonder if you can say whether USAID sees the — who's responsible for that?
Do you see it that the — the IDF is responsible for the slowdown in aid getting into Gaza in recent days? Thanks.
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, I think, Courtney, first, on the weather, it will be situationally dependent. I mean, there are light storms, medium storms, heavy storms. One thing that we — one variable we cannot control here is the weather. So we'll just see what that looks like. It's very favorable here in the coming days and week or so, and our goal is to move as much humanitarian assistance as possible during that period. And then we'll make assessments going forward, as we would with any military operation and the weather.
MS. KORDE: So just on your question, the environment, the humanitarian environment in Gaza, has become a lot more complex in the last few weeks. There's been increased displacement, and one of the border crossings is currently closed.
So there are a lot of factors at play. What I can say is that we're focused on working with the Israelis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the U.N. family and humanitarian actors. And, again, the maritime corridor and all the partners involved in all of this are essential to getting aid flows back in and all of the corridors open but also operating at the maximum capacity. So we are actively working on all of those issues with everyone who can help find solutions to this.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Alex Horton, Washington Post.
Q: Hey, folks. Thanks for doing this. So to (inaudible) off of Courtney's question, could you both speak to discussions you've had with counterparts in the Israeli government to address or to make your lives easier, if they've been able to work on anything that can help you achieve your mission?
And to Vice Admiral Cooper, can you describe the recent attacks on the land portion of the pier, and what are the capabilities to protect against those threats?
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, I can go ahead and, you know, just jump into that. Obviously, on the force protection side, I'm not going to be able to talk about specifics, other than to say that we've been coordinating very closely, as I mentioned, with the Israeli Defense Force, to address any potential issue in every domain that exists.
Our assessment is clearly that we can operate safely under current conditions, and we're just going to continue to watch that every single day.
I'll also add, to your first part of the question, we've had extremely close coordination with the Israeli Defense Force, strongly supported by the Israeli government these last six weeks, to work out every single operational detail associated with everything I'm describing today.
So I think that reflects the strong commitment of the Israelis having to — have to do this. As you know, in addition to training alongside of us, they are literally sitting side-by-side with us in the coordination cell there in Israel, and they were handed the keys over to building that marshaling yard that you're aware of. They built it completely themselves, you know, based on a shared agreement of what that should look like. So I think all of these together reflect on their commitment to ensuring humanitarian assistance, you know, moves ashore.
MS. KORDE: I'll just add that on the broader humanitarian assistance side, our teams are in daily, sometimes hourly conversations with the government of Israel, with the U.N. and other partners on the ground to basically problem-solve and to try to get aid and assistance in. So these conversations are happening in conjunction with the U.N., with the international humanitarian NGOs. And you know, as I said before, we're dealing with a very complex humanitarian operating environment, and there's just a lot of issues and problems to solve. But the coordination and the conversations are happening.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Jared Szuba, Al-Monitor.
Q: Hi, all. Thank you for doing this. Just wonder if you can clarify the combined coordination cell. Where is that going to be? Is — and there going to be any other, you know, sort of lower-level coordination cells closer to the pier? Thanks.
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, broadly, the two coordination cells that exist, one in Israel and one in Cyprus, have been up and running for weeks as we've been working on this, and as I mentioned, side-by-side with respect of partners and multinational in nature supporting USAID, U.N. representation, as well as NGOs. That's at one level.
And then at another level on the force protection side, there is very high level of coordination across each of the domains required from a force protection standpoint. You know, clearly, we could not have done any of this without the very close cooperation and support of the Israeli Defense Force, and I would describe it, the coordination, as very tight, as you might imagine.
Q: Thanks, and if I could just follow up real quick. I understand U.N. representation is also anticipated at the coordination cell. Has that been secured, or is that still in the works? Thanks.
ADM. COOPER: Yes, they're — it's happening.
STAFF: Great, thank you so much. Our next question will go to Luis Martinez, ABC News.
Q: Hi. Thank you for this. Admiral Cooper, how many trucks a day can you get onto that floating platform? And going back to Courtney's question, I mean, does the sea state imped- — im- — impact how many trucks you'll be able to get off on — onto those platforms on any given day?
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, broadly, as I describe, we've got hundreds of tons of humanitarian assistance at the ready for delivery in the coming days. We've got thousands of tons in the pipeline. You know, to be more precise, as we sit here now, we have about 500 tons of humanitarian assistance loaded on ships. That's about a million pounds ready for delivery in the coming days, and as I mentioned, thousands in the pipeline coming behind it.
Trucks may not necessarily be the greatest way of measuring things because there's eight-foot trucks, 12-foot trucks, 20-foot trucks, 40-foot trucks. So I think a better representation is tonnage, and we'll look to, you know, move this initial tranche of 500 tons in the coming days, which is pretty substantial, and then more to follow behind it.
And then separately on the weather, weather is always a factor in every military operation. It has been throughout history. It will be now. You know, I wouldn't walk down the path of hypotheticals here. We'll just how — see how it goes. Historically speaking, the time between May and August, there's very favorable weather in this part of the world. We'll see what that looks like going forward.
Q: If — quick follow-up. Then how many tons a day do you think — or you anticipate you could get off initially and then build up to?
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, we'll follow up with this in the coming days, but we think it's quite significant. As I mentioned, in the coming days, you know, I think we're going to get about 500 tons in the next couple of days. That's a pretty substantial amount, and it's spread out over multiple ships right now.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Steve Walsh, NPR.
Q: Hi. Yeah, kind of following up on that question, are you starting to lower your expectations for how much aid that can be delivered by this pier, given the weather? We're — there was some talk of 150 truckloads a day. I don't know how that works with tonnage. You know, are we starting to talk about low — a lower amount of volume? And how does that compare with the overall need? How many truckloads a day do you need to get into Gaza to — to stem the famine?
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, I'll talk about the military side of this and let Sonali talk about the overall piece of this.
One, just as a reinforcing point, the JLOTS aspect of this is additive to the overall effort from the air, and particularly from the ground. That's an important point. Our estimate is that from a truck capacity, we would start that at 90 to 150 trucks, you know, 90 initially, building up to 150, and that's as we go forward. There's absolutely no adjustment in the expectation. We have high expectation, and thus, 500 tons, you know, at the rate of delivery here in the next couple of days.
MS. KORDE: I would just add on here that we know that a lot more needs to go in through all of the routes and crossings. And you know, I would also just say that trucks are an imperfect measure on whether assistance is meeting the needs. We also need to make sure that things are getting to the most vulnerable, to the moms and children and communities. And you know, we have an estimate out there, 500 to 600, but I do want to caveat that that's a (sic) imperfect number, and really, the real measure that we're striving towards getting at and understanding is what is reaching the people and communities in need, and making sure it's the right assistance.
STAFF: Thank you. Our next question will go to Nick Schifrin, PBS.
Q: Thanks, guys, very much. You've both talked today and yesterday about the last step, distribution by the U.N., by the WFP onward. There've been some U.N. officials who have said that — that there is still some question about that last step. I'm just trying to confirm that — that you have an agreement exactly with the U.N. for those last steps from the causeway onto WFP trucks.
And for Ms. Korde specifically, Israel has promised to step up coordination with humanitarian groups since the World Central Kitchen incident in which seven of their workers were killed by — by Israeli munitions. Has Israel done enough since then? Thanks.
ADM. COOPER: I can —
MS. KORDE: So I'm —
ADM. COOPER: (inaudible) —
MS. KORDE: So yeah, sure. So you know, our discussions with the U.N., we are fully expecting — and we talk to the U.N., you know, every single day, every hour, that we — that they will be part of this and that we are making the preparations for distribution and the logistics in Gaza.
Of course, look, it's a very insecure environment that we are dealing with in Gaza, and the UN will make security assessments just like we're making security assessments. And, you know, I just want to emphasize again that we are fully aligned and fully support the UN's ability to deliver this assistance in a neutral, impartial, unfettered manner.
So we continue to work with them, we continue to talk to them, but we are expecting that we will be able to move forward, but again, fully respecting that the UN is operating in a complex environment, and we will continue to talk and solve problems and address concerns together. So that's how we're going to continue to work with them.
And, you know, in a new, complex route that we're opening up, there's going to be adjustments that we make operationally and tweaks, and this is why the coordination that Admiral Cooper talked about is so critically important.
Just on your point on the coordination and deconfliction mechanisms, those conversations are happening between the IDF and humanitarian organizations. I think they need to continue to happen. There is a very insecure operating environment, and the deconfliction measures are not where they need to be yet, given the complexity of the environment.
So those conversations are ongoing, they need to continue, and they need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don't think we're there yet. We lost a UN colleague a few days ago, and it's a very dangerous place to work. And our humanitarian aid workers deserve and need to feel protected.
ADM. COOPER: Yeah, I think on the military side of this, you know, around JLOTS and the marshaling area from a military perspective, you know, we're highly confident in the onward movement of humanitarian assistance. We've worked very closely with the IDF, developed a series of protocols and best practices supported by the UN. We exposed these in a very coordinated and transparent manner.
So I think in this case, high level of confidence. And I also think, as Sonali mentioned, you know, we will, as we go forward, make adjustments — learn and make very quick adjustments, as we would in any operation.
STAFF: Thank you. We just have time for just a — just a few more here. Anas Elsabbar, Sky News Arabia?
Q: Yes, thank you. I have two questions. First, is UNRWA part of the distribution process? Is it — I know it's within the UN but is it part of the process, like specifically, because they have the most diverse and extend, like, network of distribution in Gaza? That's number one.
And for Mr. Cooper, it — would you please just explain again the process of moving the aid from Cyprus to ships — big ships and then to the pier and then to the small ships, if I'm correct? And also, who is responsible for the security on land, on the shore? And how do you, like — do you have any guarantees that this area is protected and no, like, security concerns are there? Thank you.
MS. KORDE: So just on the first question, this maritime corridor and assistance into Gaza, we are working with the entire UN family and the humanitarian community in Gaza —
(CROSSTALK)
MS. KORDE: — which includes humanitarian NGOs. So I'm not going to get into sort of specific partners on who we're working with but the corridor is in support for the entire humanitarian effort and the UN family.
ADM. COOPER: Sir, on your two questions, let me take the second part of that first. In terms of security, although I'm obviously not going to be able to get into specific details, we have made the assessment that execution of this mission can go forward based on the current environment, and thus our action this morning to emplace the temporary pier.
And as mentioned, we do expect to start moving humanitarian assistance in the coming days. I think that reflects our assessment of the overall environment, which we are assessing and re-assessing every day.
The — broadly speaking though, the security arrangement is between the United States military and the Israeli Defense Force across armies, navies, and air forces combined to protect our service members as well as everyone working around the marshaling area.
And then in terms of how the flow works, I would just describe it very quickly for you. As the humanitarian assistance comes into Cyprus, it comes either via air or sea. It's then screened, palletized, and prepared for delivery there in Cyprus.
A — those pallets of aid are then loaded onto a large commercial vessel or military vessel. Those vessels travel about 200 miles from Cyprus out to a large floating platform that we've assembled several miles off the coast. It's at anchor off the coast of Gaza.
The floating platform is just used as a stable work space to transload the pallets from the bigger ships to smaller U.S. military vessels, each of which can carry between about five and 15 trucks full of aid. And then those smaller ships that now have the humanitarian assistance on them shuttle from there up to the pier that we established this morning. So from that large floating platform a couple miles out to the temporary pier, which is basically a floating causeway, it's several hundred meters long, and as mentioned, it's fixed to the beach in Gaza.
So big picture — from the floating platform — well, actually, big picture — from Cyprus to the floating platform to trucks that are on small ships, down the floating causeway, down the causeway, on the land, dropped off for the United Nations and other partners to pick up, and those trucks that do that then go back and rinse, repeat, and the process rinses and repeats over and over again.
It's a — it is well in place, particularly the Cyprus piece of that, the Cyprus to Gaza piece of that. And the rest of that will follow in the coming days.
I hope that was helpful.
STAFF: Thank you. Our last question will go to Patrick Turner at Defense One.
Q: Oh, good — thanks for doing this. So for Ms. Korde from USAID, you mentioned that the Rafah crossing was having a — a bad effect on the ability to get aid in general in — into Gaza. I wonder if you can add any specifics on the scope of the humanitarian assistance need right now, if there's any numbers, and the degree to which this pier will ameliorate those numbers or won't? Like, how much assistance on the ground — is there a number that is needed? And — and where does this mission go in answering the size (of that meet ?)?
MS. KORDE: Thank you for your question. Just, you know, as I said before, the amount of assistance needed in Gaza is immense, and our policy has been to increase Gaza — flood Gaza with assistance. And trucks are an imperfect measure of that because what we want to make sure is that assistance is getting to the communities that are most vulnerable and also the right kind of assistance is getting there.
We have 2.2 million people in need, and again, we're operating in a very complex operating environment. What I can say is that the maritime corridor is absolutely essential to helping meet this gap in need, to, you know, address the shelter, the food, the health, malnutrition, and clean water, sanitation needs for 2.2 million people.
And the maritime corridor, as Admiral Cooper described, and the capabilities is additive, important, and is going to really help to fill what is a gap in assistance going forward. We need to just continue to work on getting more aid in through all routes and basically support the humanitarian community in getting aid to people who need it the most.
So again, you know, as I said in my opening remarks, we're at a point in time when this is all hands on deck, we can't spare any effort. And, you know, we're really happy that this corridor is really a partnership of multiple countries coming together to support this very important effort.
Q: Okay, can you say with — could you say with certainty though that the closing of the Rafah cross — crossing will exacerbate the humanitarian need, and that perhaps because of that closing there'll be needs that aren’t met despite this new effort?
MS. KORDE: The — what I can say is that there's been a series of things that have happened which have exacerbated the needs in the past few weeks. And we need to have everything open — all routes open, all land crossings open. They need to be maximally utilized. And the maritime corridor is a very important new route to get additional assistance in.
So, you know, I think, you know, there's not like a situation where one compensates for the other. Everything needs to come in and everything needs to be additive.
Q: Thank you.
STAFF: Thank you, everyone, for —
Q: May I ask if — if there's an end date to this?
STAFF: Thank you.
Q: Do you have an end date?
STAFF: Guys, everyone, thank you so much. I just want to be mindful of our speakers' time. We will have a transcript posted online later today on Defense.gov. Again, thank you so much for joining our call.