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US Pier in Gaza Facing Latest Challenge - Whether the UN Will Keep Delivering Aid

FILE - This image provided by the US Army shows trucks loaded with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates and the United States Agency for International Development cross the Trident Pier before arriving on the beach on the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley/U.S. Army via AP, File)
FILE - This image provided by the US Army shows trucks loaded with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates and the United States Agency for International Development cross the Trident Pier before arriving on the beach on the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley/U.S. Army via AP, File)
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US Pier in Gaza Facing Latest Challenge - Whether the UN Will Keep Delivering Aid

FILE - This image provided by the US Army shows trucks loaded with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates and the United States Agency for International Development cross the Trident Pier before arriving on the beach on the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley/U.S. Army via AP, File)
FILE - This image provided by the US Army shows trucks loaded with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates and the United States Agency for International Development cross the Trident Pier before arriving on the beach on the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley/U.S. Army via AP, File)

The US-built pier to bring food to Gaza is facing one of its most serious challenges yet — its humanitarian partner is deciding if it's safe to keep delivering supplies arriving by sea to starving Palestinians.
The United Nations, the player with the widest reach delivering aid within Gaza, has paused its work with the pier after a June 8 operation by Israeli security forces that rescued four Israeli hostages and killed more than 270 Palestinians, The Associated Press said.
Rushing out a mortally wounded Israeli commando after the raid, Israeli rescuers opted against returning the way they came, across a land border, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters. Instead, they sped toward the beach and the site of the US aid hub on Gaza’s coast, he said. An Israeli helicopter touched down near the US-built pier and helped whisk away hostages, according to the US and Israeli militaries.
For the UN and independent humanitarian groups, the event made real one of their main doubts about the US sea route: Whether aid workers could cooperate with the US military-backed, Israeli military-secured project without violating core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence and without risking aid workers becoming seen as US and Israeli allies — and in turn, targets in their own right.
Israel and the US deny that any aspect of the month-old US pier was used in the Israeli raid.
The UN World Food Program, which works with the US to transfer aid from the $230 million pier to warehouses and local aid teams for distribution within Gaza, suspended cooperation as it conducts a security review. Aid has been piling up on the beach since.
“You can be damn sure we are going to be very careful about what we assess and what we conclude,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said.
Griffiths told reporters at an aid conference in Jordan this week that determining whether the Israeli raid improperly used either the beach or roads around the pier “would put at risk any future humanitarian engagement in that operation.”
The UN has to look at the facts as well as what the Palestinian public and militants believe about any US, pier or aid worker involvement in the raid, spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
“Humanitarian aid must not be used and must not be perceived as taking any side in a conflict,” Haq said. “The safety of our humanitarian workers depends on all sides and the communities on the ground trusting their impartiality.”
Rumors have swirled on social media, deepening the danger to aid workers, humanitarian groups say.
“Whether or not we've seen the pier used for military purposes is almost irrelevant. Because the perception of people in Gaza, civilians and armed groups, is that humanitarian aid has been instrumentalized" by parties in the conflict, said Suze van Meegen, head of operations in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Oxfam International and some other aid organizations said they are waiting for answers from the US government because it's responsible for the agreements with the UN and other humanitarian groups on how the pier and aid deliveries would function.
Questions include whether the Israeli helicopters and security forces used what the US had promised aid groups would be a no-go area for the Israeli military around the pier, said Scott Paul, an associate director at Oxfam.
The suspension of deliveries is only one of the problems that have hindered the pier, which President Joe Biden announced in March as an additional way to get aid to Palestinians. The US has said the project was never a solution and have urged Israel to lift restrictions on aid shipments through land crossings as famine looms.
The first aid from the sea route rolled onto shore May 17, and work has been up and down since:
— May 18: Crowds overwhelmed aid trucks coming from the pier, stripping some of the trucks of their cargo. The WFP suspended deliveries from the pier for at least two days while it worked out alternate routes with the US and Israel.
— May 24: A bit more than 1,000 metric tons of aid had been delivered to Gaza from the pier, and the US Agency for International Development later said all of it was distributed within Gaza.
— May 25: High winds and heavy seas damaged the pier and four US Army vessels ran aground, injuring three service members, one critically. Crews towed away part of the floating dock in what became a two-week pause in operations.
— June 8: The US military announced that deliveries resumed off the repaired and reinstalled project. The Israeli military operation unfolded the same day.
— Sunday: World Food Program chief Cindy McCain announced a “pause” in cooperation with the US pier, citing the previous day's “incident” and the rocketing of two WFP warehouses that injured a staffer.
“The WFP, of course, is taking the security measures that they need to do, and the reviews that they need to do, in order to feel safe and secure and to operate within Gaza,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said this week.
The pier has brought to Gaza more than 2,500 metric tons (about 5.6 million pounds) of aid, Singh said. About 1,000 metric tons of that was brought by ship Tuesday and Wednesday — after the WFP pause — and is being stored on the beach awaiting distribution.
Now, the question is whether the UN will rejoin the effort.
For aid workers who generally work without weapons or armed guards, and for those they serve, “the best guarantee of our security is the acceptance of communities” that aid workers are neutral, said Paul, the Oxfam official.
Palestinians already harbored deep doubts about the pier given the lead role of the US, which sends weapons and other support to its ally Israel, said Yousef Munayyer, a senior fellow at Washington's Arab Center, an independent organization researching Israeli-Arab issues.
Distrustful Palestinians suffering in the Israel-Hamas war are being asked to take America at its word, and that’s a hard sell, said Munayyer, an American of Palestinian heritage.
“So you know, perception matters a lot,” he said. “And for the people who are literally putting their lives on the line to get humanitarian aid moving around a war zone, perception gets you in danger.”

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Arab World

Houthi Escalation Backfires in Taiz, on Yemen’s Western Coast

Yemeni government forces launch counteroffensive in Taiz, Hodeidah — military media
Yemeni government forces launch counteroffensive in Taiz, Hodeidah — military media
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Houthi Escalation Backfires in Taiz, on Yemen’s Western Coast

Yemeni government forces launch counteroffensive in Taiz, Hodeidah — military media
Yemeni government forces launch counteroffensive in Taiz, Hodeidah — military media

A large-scale Houthi ground offensive launched on Thursday across Yemen’s western coast, southern Hodeidah, and western Taiz was faltering on Saturday as government forces counterattacked on several fronts, backed by intensified air strikes and efforts to cut the group’s supply lines.

In the most significant battlefield development on Saturday morning, national resistance forces, backed by units from the Giants Brigades, launched a counterattack south of al-Jarrahi district in Hodeidah province.

National resistance drones simultaneously struck Houthi reinforcements in the area, according to its military media office.

The operation came as government forces advanced from Hays towards al-Jarrahi in southeastern Hodeidah, seeking to regain the initiative on one of the fronts where the Houthis had carried out major attacks in recent days.

Military sources said the group had suffered heavy losses in personnel and equipment during the fighting.

In southeastern Taiz, government forces made further gains on the Hayfan front and seized al-Wathra hill and Saeed Taha hill in the al-Mafalis area, as well as the Dheiban, al-Khudaira and al-Najdain hills, according to a military source.

The recaptured positions are militarily significant because they overlook al-Khazja market and Houthi supply routes towards fronts in northwestern Lahj and southern Taiz, the source said. The source added that the group had suffered losses in personnel and equipment and that some of its fighters had fled their positions.

Counteroffensive

In western Taiz, government forces recaptured al-Khazan hill in Jabal Habashi district on Friday after fierce clashes with the Houthis, as fighting intensified on the Maqbanah and al-Kadaha fronts and government reinforcements arrived.

The rapidly unfolding developments on these fronts indicate that the initiative is gradually shifting from the Houthis to government forces after three days of fighting in which the group sought to break through in southern Hodeidah and western Taiz, particularly in Jabal Habashi.

On the Saqam front, the national resistance’s military media office said on Saturday that Second Division forces were inflicting heavy losses on the Houthis in the al-Muharraq mountains.

The national resistance’s naval forces said they destroyed two Houthi explosive-laden boats that had attempted to target the al-Fajra area south of al-Khokha and the port of Mokha.

Military sources also said a Houthi infiltration attempt from the eastern entrance to Taiz city had been thwarted and several members of the group killed, while fighting continued in various sectors of the front.

At the same time, Houthi shelling struck the Hayjat al-Abd road linking Taiz and Aden, killing four civilians and wounding nine others, according to local and medical sources. The attack also caused property damage at the site.

The incidents reflect the widening scope of the Houthi escalation to include roads and civilian areas alongside the group’s ground operations on the front lines.

Air strikes enter the battle

For the first time, the Yemeni army said it had used combat aircraft to strike Houthi positions on the Taiz and Hodeidah fronts, marking a notable development in the course of the current fighting.

The armed forces’ media center said on Friday evening that combat aircraft had carried out more than 15 strikes on Houthi positions, gatherings and vehicles on the western coast fronts in Taiz and Hodeidah provinces, as artillery fire and ground clashes continued.

Military sources said Yemeni aircraft continued to strike Houthi positions in Taiz and Hodeidah, targeting supply lines and weapons depots. Houthi positions in the city of al-Hazm in al-Jawf province were also hit by air strikes, according to military sources.

Field sources said the Houthis had suffered heavy losses during three days of fighting, with hundreds of the group’s fighters killed or wounded. Hospitals under Houthi control in Hodeidah were facing mounting pressure as casualties arrived from the battlefronts, they said.

The group transferred another group of fighters killed or wounded in the clashes to hospitals in al-Jarrahi and Zabid, according to local media sources, indicating the scale of its losses during the offensive and subsequent efforts to repel the counterattacks.

The Houthis, meanwhile, continued to send reinforcements to the battle zones to hold positions they had initially advanced to and contain the government forces’ counteroffensive.

Protecting Bab al-Mandab

As the fighting widened, Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, and other council members monitored developments in the military operations and contacted military and field commanders to review the course of the battles, readiness levels, and operational and logistical needs, according to a statement from the office of the supreme commander of the armed forces.

Al-Alimi warned on Friday evening of the consequences of the Houthi escalation, holding the group responsible for the resulting humanitarian impact, including the displacement of hundreds of families from areas affected by the fighting.

He said government forces would not allow what he described as Iran’s objective of controlling the Bab al-Mandab Strait to be achieved, adding that any advance towards those areas would severely drain the Houthis.

The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation called on international organizations and donors to intervene urgently to help displaced and affected families in Taiz and Hodeidah.

It warned of growing needs for shelter, food, medicine, water and medical services, and called for field hospitals to be established to receive the wounded.

Mokha and its port were hit by a series of Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks last August, in an escalation that struck civilian facilities and sites, disrupted port traffic, and put its facilities out of service.

Government forces responded with military operations and strikes targeting the group’s movements and offensive capabilities.

Arab World

Iraq’s Coordination Framework, Armed Factions Hit Deadlock in Talks

Iraqi police manage a queue of vehicles outside a fuel station in Baghdad, Sept. 5, 2026. (AFP)
Iraqi police manage a queue of vehicles outside a fuel station in Baghdad, Sept. 5, 2026. (AFP)
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Iraq’s Coordination Framework, Armed Factions Hit Deadlock in Talks

Iraqi police manage a queue of vehicles outside a fuel station in Baghdad, Sept. 5, 2026. (AFP)
Iraqi police manage a queue of vehicles outside a fuel station in Baghdad, Sept. 5, 2026. (AFP)

Iraq’s Shiite Coordination Framework has hit a deadlock with armed factions refusing to surrender their weapons as the Sept. 30 deadline for the final US withdrawal approaches, casting a shadow over government plans to celebrate the date as “Sovereignty Day.”

A three-member committee formed by the Framework has so far failed to secure a breakthrough with the factions, which reject demands to hand over their arsenals by the withdrawal date.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government had initially hoped Sept. 30 would mark both the departure of US forces and the transfer of factional weapons to government control. But negotiations between the Framework and the armed groups now appear to have reached an impasse.

According to the latest position expressed by the armed factions, articulated by Harakat al-Nujaba, as well as statements by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Badr Organization leader Hadi al-Amiri, there is no final or fixed deadline for handing over, restricting, disarming or freezing weapons held outside state control.

Several armed groups, foremost among them Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, have previously rejected demands to surrender their arsenals, saying they would not abide by any timetable because their weapons are ideological and not confined within national borders.

Ali al-Asadi, head of Harakat al-Nujaba’s Political Council, said the movement remained committed to its right to safeguard what he called the “sanctity” of the resistance’s weapons in the face of regional risks and threats.

In a post on X on Friday, Asadi said he had concluded a visit to leading figures in the Coordination Framework’s political process, during which he reaffirmed the movement’s position on the importance of “preserving the Popular Mobilization Forces as a national body that cannot be compromised.”

He also stressed the need to preserve the “resistance” and the “sanctity of its weapons” in light of what he described as the “real and serious risks and threats” facing Iraq and the wider region.

Asadi also reiterated Nujaba’s policy of not participating in the political process, saying: “This approach is what keeps us alongside our people, experiencing what they experience, carrying their concerns and working to fulfill their demands.”

“This responsibility will remain on our shoulders until comprehensive change is achieved, ensuring sovereignty, security and prosperity, freeing our economy from American domination and stabilizing the domestic situation,” he said.

The Iraqi government, for its part, says through Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, that “no force in the world and no regional circumstances can break a state whose people, in all their components and communities, rally around its institutions.”

In a briefing, Numan warned of what he called “a flood of alarmism led by platforms financed with suspicious funds to peddle fear and exploit Iraqis’ emotions as the Sept. 30 deadline approaches.”

“The military and security establishment, which stood firm through the darkest and most difficult circumstances and sacrificed its most precious blood to protect this land, fully understands the scale of the challenges and is working around the clock in the field, away from the clamor of political posturing,” Numan said.

“The next phase requires wisdom, steadfastness and solidarity,” he added.

Asked about efforts to bring weapons under state control and the armed factions’ demands regarding the announced timetable for surrendering them, military and strategic expert Mukhlad Hazem told Asharq Al-Awsat that political blocs often made ill-considered statements that did not reflect what they were actually thinking behind closed doors.

“Everyone knows that their options are limited and that they could lose these gains, spoils, prestige and power at any moment,” Hazem said.

“Everyone agrees that the issue of bringing weapons under state control must be resolved because it is no longer a matter of domestic will alone, but also of external will. It is a trade-off between remaining in power and heading into the unknown,” he added.

Hazem said some politicians addressed their supporters merely to provide political cover while trying to appease the factions.

“The reality has been imposed not only on Iraq, but also on Syria, Lebanon and Yemen: No weapons can remain outside the authority of the state, and armed groups cannot be allowed to control decisions of war and peace,” he said.

“Everyone now has few options left in this regard. A decision on bringing weapons under state control has been made conclusively and finally.”

Maliki and Amiri

The three-member committee formed by the Coordination Framework — comprising former prime ministers Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Nouri al-Maliki, as well as Badr Organization leader Hadi al-Amiri — is continuing negotiations with armed factions that refuse to surrender their weapons.

However, recent statements by al-Maliki and al-Amiri have raised questions among political groups and the Iraqi public about the timetable agreed upon for bringing all weapons under state control.

Al-Maliki said there would be “no disarmament of the factions,” but rather a process to regulate their weapons. He gave no timeframe for doing so, which some sources said meant the process would be postponed until after the US withdrawal.

Al-Amiri went further, saying in a speech that the armed factions would remain in place. He said they had protected the political system by confronting what he called the “October sedition,” a reference to the mass uprising that erupted in 2019 and was violently suppressed.

Academic and political activist Faris Harram told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the first striking aspect of al-Amiri’s statement is that it is consistent with allegations made in several Western reports during the October protest movement that armed factions in Iraq were responsible for killing demonstrators.”

“Some reports at the time named leaders alleged to have been involved in liquidations, assassinations and the unjustified attacks carried out against the young participants in the October uprising,” Harram said.

“Such consistency should immediately draw the attention of Iraq’s public prosecutor,” he added. “I ask: Where has the public prosecutor’s office been in monitoring such statements since 2003? To this day, the public prosecution service has not fulfilled its role in pursuing cases that require judicial intervention.”

Harram said an investigation should have been opened into the statements about the factions’ role in suppressing the October protest movement, given their connection to reports that both the Iraqi government and the armed factions had denied at the time.

“We are therefore facing a connection that must be kept in mind,” he said.

“Al-Amiri must explain what he meant by the statement, which can be understood as saying that the factions were responsible” for suppressing the protests, Harram added.

He said this was also connected to remarks by then-Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who said the killings of demonstrators had been carried out by a “third party.”

“Unfortunately, we have grown accustomed in Iraq to everything passing without investigation as part of a broader pattern of impunity,” Harram said.

Arab World

Hezbollah Throws Blame on Lebanese State for Israeli Escalation

TOPSHOT - Residents inspect the destruction the morning after a night airstrike by the Israeli military that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun on September 5, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Residents inspect the destruction the morning after a night airstrike by the Israeli military that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun on September 5, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
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Hezbollah Throws Blame on Lebanese State for Israeli Escalation

TOPSHOT - Residents inspect the destruction the morning after a night airstrike by the Israeli military that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun on September 5, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Residents inspect the destruction the morning after a night airstrike by the Israeli military that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun on September 5, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah party continues to throw the blame on Lebanese authorities for Israel’s military escalations in the South, as a ministerial source questions the party’s silence over the fall of the strategic Ali al-Taher hill following reports of an Iranian-US deal.

“It is unfortunate that this rhetoric of holding the authorities responsible continues, while everyone knows who dragged the country into this war and whose interests they served by doing so”, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

Hezbollah didn’t issue any clear position after the downfall of Ali al-Taher into Israel’s control.

The source questioned why the group had not defended it or explained to its supporters what had actually happened there. “Why did they not defend Ali al-Taher? Why don’t they tell their supporters the truth about what actually happened there, instead of maintaining this complete silence?” said the source.

The source also pointed to a shift in Hezbollah’s rhetoric, from portraying Ali al-Taher as strategic and issuing threats over it, to downplaying its significance following its downfall.

Israeli Escalation in the South and Bekaa

Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday killed four people and wounded 32, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The strikes hit seven villages mainly striking Nabtieh. In Mayfadoun, an 18-year-old woman was killed.

Israel said it targeted Hezbollah personnel and weapons infrastructure in response to a drone launch toward its forces.

Also, Israeli drones flew at low altitude over Beirut and its southern suburbs on Saturday, while Israeli aircraft struck homes in Mansouri and carried out several explosions in the area. Large explosions were also reported in Bani Hayyan, with footage showing extensive smoke.

Hezbollah Steps Up Rhetoric against the Government

Hezbollah escalated its rhetoric against the Lebanese authority, considering Israel’s continued aggression against Lebanon showed the failure of the state’s approach toward Israel.

In a statement it issued on Saturday, Hezbollah said: “The Israeli enemy continues to escalate its aggression and crimes against Lebanon, through killings, bombardment, destruction and the systematic demolition of homes and villages, amid complete international silence, blatant US complicity and the total absence of the Lebanese authorities from assuming their responsibilities”.

It added that the authorities’ continued pursuit of “wrong choices and a concessionary and submissive approach” had only served to entrench the occupation and allow the enemy to continue its aggression and crimes against the Lebanese people.

Hezbollah said the Israeli aggression was putting pressure on the Lebanese authorities to carry out what it described as “agendas” with known objectives, warning that continuing along the negotiating path “gives the enemy cover to continue its aggression and more time to achieve its goals and impose its conditions and dictates on Lebanon.”

Hezbollah also criticized the direct US-sponsored Lebanese-Israel talks and the “framework agreement,” arguing that the continued occupation and Israeli attacks undermined any claims of progress achieved through the process.