As Gaza's 2.3 million residents face what United Nations officials describe as “catastrophic” levels of hunger, the United States, the European Union and other countries are beginning construction of a temporary dock to deliver aid by sea. .
The first steps were taken over the weekend, when the US military announced that a ship was en route to the Mediterranean Sea with the equipment to build the port, a project that could take two months.
Here's a look at the project and its complications.
How is aid currently reaching Gaza?
Since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, Israel has drastically reduced food and water deliveries and completely cut off gas supplies to Gaza. The enclave had already been subject to a blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2007.
Aid still enters Gaza from Israel through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, as well as from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. But Israel refuses to open two additional crossings, and when it does allow passage, aid groups say its inspectors routinely deny entry to legitimate humanitarian goods.
Once goods enter the enclave, distribution is a challenge. Israeli forces have been accused of attacking UN aid convoys, as well as security personnel who are supposed to protect them.
In February, Israeli troops fired on a crowd that had surrounded an aid convoy at a checkpoint, killing 118 Palestinians, Gaza authorities said. The Israeli military released a report this month that said “troops did not fire on the humanitarian convoy, but did fire on several suspects who approached nearby forces and posed a threat to them.”
Israel insists it is not preventing aid. It blames the UN for the lack of distribution and accuses Hamas of diverting and selling incoming aid for its own purposes.
The United States, France and others have airdropped tens of thousands of military-style meals to Gaza, but those deliveries have fallen far short of the 6.6 million meals needed each day.
Aid groups note that one truck can carry the same load as several C-130 transport planes. Packages have also landed at sea or in Israel. And last weekend, five Gazans were hit and killed by a package whose parachute did not open.
What is the current state of food supply in Gaza?
The UN warned last month that a quarter of Gaza's population is one step away from famine. Palestinian authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from malnutrition had reached 25.
With most of Gaza's population displaced and living in Rafah, the situation is most dire for the 300,000 people still in the north, who remain almost completely cut off from aid.
As the holy month of Ramadan was to begin on Monday, Ahmad Al-Banna, 29, had come to Gaza City to buy food that he intended to donate to people in the north.
“But there is nothing to buy,” he said. “The only thing you can find in stores are ketchup bottles and pickle jars.”
He said people lived on kobiza, a type of mallow that grew in open fields, and that they could dig up any potatoes that were left.
Israeli officials deny there are any food shortages and say the use of the word “hunger” to describe the circumstances is “exaggerated,” according to a Jerusalem Post report.
Doesn't Gaza already have a port?
Gaza City's main fishing port is too damaged to accommodate ships and is in any case too shallow for many types of vessels. Other docks are also not suitable for shipping.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has proposed that the ships unload their cargo at the Israeli port of Ashdod to be taken to Gaza, but Israel has rejected that idea.
So what's the plan?
U.S. officials say the solution is to build a port. A U.S. Army logistics support ship, Gen. Frank S. Besson, was en route over the weekend to begin construction.
More than 1,000 U.S. military personnel will work to build an offshore floating dock and a two-lane causeway, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
Large ships will dock at the dock and unload their cargo to smaller vessels, which will transport the shipments to the causeway and from there to Gaza. It is unclear how aid will be distributed once inside the enclave.
Ryder said the operation would eventually deliver “more than 2 million meals a day,” but that construction could take up to two months.
Two months is a long time. What do you think now?
The most immediate option is the one proposed by the European Union, which requires that aid be picked up at Larnaca's Cypress port and inspected by a committee of nations that includes Israel. Warships would escort the ships to shore, although it is unclear where they would dock and unload.
Hoping to go first are the operators of the Spanish-flagged rescue ship Open Arms, which is currently docked in Larnaca. It is loaded with 200 tonnes of food from the US charity World Central Kitchen, which operates 60 kitchens inside Gaza that have served around 32 million meals since the war began.
In good weather, the Open Arms could make the 230-mile trip in about 16 hours. But the real challenge is the last kilometer. To prevent Gazans from boarding – a prospect aid workers fear will prompt Israeli military action – the group has suggested the ship could tow a barge loaded with pallets of food and then push it to shore.
World Central Kitchen also hired a team inside Gaza to build a 120-foot dock at an undisclosed location on the coast.
What do aid groups think about the US plan to build a pier?
Even as Western governments expressed enthusiasm, aid groups have been critical.
“The US plan for a temporary dock in Gaza to increase the flow of humanitarian aid is a blatant distraction from the real problem: Israel's indiscriminate and disproportionate military campaign and its punitive siege,” said Avril Benoit, executive director of Doctors Without US Borders, in a statement.
“This is not a logistics problem; “It is a political problem,” he said. “Rather than turning to the U.S. military to find an alternative solution, the United States should insist on immediate humanitarian access using roads and entry points that already exist.”
