Israel news: US aid to Gaza on track [Video]

The United States expects to have on-the-ground arrangements in Gaza ready for humanitarian workers to start delivering food, treatment for starving children and other urgent assistance by early to mid-month when the American military expects to complete a floating pier for the aid, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

But aid coming through the new U.S.-led maritime route still will serve only a fraction — half a million people — of those who need help in Gaza, the USAID official stressed to The Associated Press. They are some of the agency’s first comments on the status of preparations for the Biden administration’s US$320 million Gaza pier project, for which USAID is helping coordinate on-the-ground security and distribution.

Meanwhile, at a factory in southern Georgia, USAID Administrator Samantha Power is due later Friday to announce a US$200 million investment to ramp up U.S. production of emergency nutritional …