MODERATOR: Greetings to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s London International Media Hub. I would like to welcome our participants dialing in from the Middle East and around the world for this on-the-record briefing on the status of establishing a maritime corridor of humanitarian assistance into Gaza through the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore capability, or JLOTS. The officials who will speak with us today are Dan Dieckhaus, Response Director at the United States Agency for International Development, and Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Deputy Commander of the United States Central Command.
I will now turn it over to Response Director Dieckhaus to begin our opening remarks. Sir, the floor is yours.
DANIEL DIECKHAUS: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, good evening, good morning for everyone on the line. My name is Dan Dieckhaus. I’m the response director for USAID’s Levant humanitarian response.
I want to start by recognizing that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains incredibly dire. Humanitarian conditions are deteriorating. Insecurity is escalating, particularly in Rafah, and civilians are suffering. The United States continues working relentlessly to surge assistance through all available means to address the impacts of this crisis.
Just to put things in further perspective, the entire population of Gaza – around 2.2 million people – is facing acute food insecurity, meaning they require food assistance, and the threat of famine is looming. More than half of the population in northern Gaza is facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, and nearly 30 percent of the children there are severely malnourished. In the south, in southern Gaza, nearly a quarter of the population is facing this type of food insecurity.
To mitigate the effects of emerging famine, humanitarian organizations are working to surge life-saving assistance, but food alone is not enough. We need nutritional treatment, clean water, support for healthcare workers to reach mothers and children to receive malnutrition treatment and prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
This dire situation in Gaza is further complicated by what is happening in Rafah, which has forced approximately 450,000 people to flee since May 6th and risks compounding a humanitarian catastrophe. Humanitarian actors are facing significant challenges getting aid into Rafah given the closure of critical border crossings as well as accessing warehouses and distributing aid due to the deteriorating situation.
We continue to be greatly concerned about further population displacement and its impacts on humanitarian needs due to the limited space and severe lack of sufficient infrastructure, including available water, in Rafah and in likely displacement sites to which people would flee.
Despite these and other challenges, we have continued working to increase humanitarian aid deliveries through all avenues. So USAID is coordinating with the Department of Defense to establish a maritime corridor to augment – not replace, but to augment – ongoing efforts to scale the delivery of humanitarian aid by land. This maritime corridor includes the construction of a temporary pier, which my colleague will describe in further detail, in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Gaza and directly into Gaza to assist humanitarian organizations to receive and deliver lifesaving assistance in an independent, neutral, and impartial manner. And I want to stress that aspect – that means that humanitarian organizations will determine who gets assistance, who is prioritized, who receives that assistance, and what that assistance actually is.
This is a complex humanitarian aid mission that requires continuous coordination between many partners. But underpinning everything is a life-saving initiative with a humanitarian purpose in line with humanitarian principles – this corridor. It’s critical that humanitarian workers are able to safely deliver and distribute life-saving assistance from this maritime corridor, as it is from any entry point in Gaza and throughout Gaza. And we will continue to advocate for increased measures to provide greater assurances for those working to deliver aid to people in need at great personal risk.
Work on the pier is complete and the maritime corridor is expected to be operational in the coming days. Humanitarian commodities from the United States and other countries are currently arriving in Cyprus, where they are being screened for loading onto ships for delivery to Gaza via the maritime corridor where, again, humanitarian organizations will independently select and distribute that assistance to the final recipient.
We continue working to ensure lifesaving assistance reaches civilians in need through all avenues, and we will continue to do everything we can to save lives and alleviate the suffering of those in greatest need. While we have seen – had seen some progress on increasing the amount of aid entering Gaza, more must be done now, and especially in light of recent setbacks. We have and will continue to press Israel to create the conditions to ensure the safety of humanitarian actors and activities as we call on all parties in this conflict to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian actors. And we will also press the Government of Israel to open additional land crossings, remove impediments to the delivery of humanitarian aid, and do far more to prevent the killing of humanitarian workers and innocent civilians.
As I mentioned, this maritime corridor is meant to be additive and it is meant to enable humanitarian organizations in the independent operation of their humanitarian activities.
With that brief framing, I’ll turn it over to my colleague, Vice Admiral [Brad] Cooper.
VICE ADMIRAL BRAD COOPER: Hi. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Vice Admiral Cooper here. Thank you for the opportunity to join you today. It’s great to be here to discuss this important effort to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza from the sea. USAID, as you may know, is the lead agency of the U.S. government for the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance worldwide. In this context, USAID has the lead for the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
As directed by our Secretary of Defense, supporting USAID efforts to supply humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza is a top priority. 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 under way 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 complement 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 from the sea. To date, the United States along with over a dozen partners has executed more than 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 three million meals into Gaza by airdrops, more than one million of which have been from the United States. These airdrops are still continuing and we are fully committed to the successful delivery of aid from the sea as well.
So let’s focus on the maritime aid delivery route now. In March, the President of the United States directed establishment of a temporary pier for the delivery of aid into Gaza. We knew this would take about two months to come to fruition. I am 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 and transported 11,000 kilometers and then assembled off the coast of Gaza. In the coming days, we expect to affix the temporary pier to the Gaza shore and begin the delivery of aid.
Before I dive into more details, I do want to highlight a few key points. The first and foremost is, this 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. The maritime route, as was mentioned, is additive, and is not meant to replace land routes into Gaza. I’d also like to mention this is an internationally backed effort coordinated with the United Nations. And then finally, there will be no U.S. military boots on the ground in Gaza.
For sure, delivering humanitarian aid from the sea is unique and complex. For context on the magnitude of this effort, there are 14 U.S. and partnerships of various sizes solely focused on this one mission of delivering assistance to the people of Gaza.
Now let me just take a moment to describe how the overall process of the delivery of aid into Gaza by the sea works in execution. 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 into large commercial or military vessels that travel from Cyprus to a large floating platform that we have assembled and is anchored several kilometers off the coast of Gaza. The 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 each.
The smaller ships then shuttle these trucks with aid from the floating platform to a temporary pier – basically, a floating causeway that is several hundred meters long that is fixed to the beach in Gaza. So aid goes from the floating platform onto trucks, onto the small ships; the floating – then from the small ships onto the floating causeway – the trucks roll down the causeway onto land and commodities are dropped off on land. These trucks then repeat the process over and over in that same loop I just described.
And then separately, after commodities are ashore, the UN and World Food Program will receive the humanitarian aid for onward distribution inside Gaza. These are two separate processes.
What we can tell you now is the process works. Today, we have hundreds of tons of aid ready for delivery and thousands of tons of aid in the pipeline. These initial deliveries will contain aid from multiple partner nations. We are seeing significant volumes of aid flowing into Cyprus for further distribution and we expect this flow will continue as more international donors contribute.
As mentioned, this effort is led by many partners. I’d particularly like to thank the United Kingdom for providing a ship named the RFA Cardigan Bay for their logistics support. I can’t stress enough the international nature of the effort. The U.S. military is simply providing logistics support to enable international donors to flow their aid into Gaza from the sea. If I said this a different way, we’re simply enabling a shared service for the international community to serve the people of Gaza.
I also want to address force protection. This is our top priority. We take the security of our servicemembers and the humanitarian aid workers very seriously. As a point of emphasis, this a 100 percent humanitarian mission and any attack on those working on it, on this mission, is an attack on aid for the people of Gaza. We will continue to assess and reassess security to inform our operation every day.
We do have two coordination cells in place – one in Cyprus and one in Israel. For weeks, we have been working side by side with the USAID team, the Cypriots, the Israelis, and the United Nations to support the planning effort to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
The Israeli Government has been highly supportive of this overall effort. We are coordinating closely among all parties to ensure a smooth flow of commodities from Cyprus to Gaza, and then ensure coordination mechanisms where the delivery distribution within Gaza is in place.
With that, I’ll just leave you with three thoughts. Number one, the temporary pier is built for the express purpose of delivering humanitarian aid to help the people of Gaza. Number two, the aid is ready for delivery today, and more is lined up right behind it. And number three, we appreciate the contributions of all of our international partners and welcome more donations. Every donation of aid goes to the people of Gaza.
Thank you very much. Happy to take any questions.
MODERATOR: Thank you, speakers. We will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today’s call. Our first question is a pre-submitted question, and it comes from Abdelraouf Arnaout of Al-ayyam daily newspaper in the Palestinian territories. And Abdelraouf asks: “When do you expect the Gaza pier to begin working? How do you respond to local fears it will be used to encourage Gazans to leave?”
Response Director Dieckhaus, we’ll go over to you first.
MR. DIECKHAUS: Well, great, thanks a lot. As I mentioned in the topper, we expect this to be operational in the next few days, and I’ll ask my colleague Admiral Cooper if he has anything further to clarify on that.
On the question of is this intended or will it help facilitate displacement, the answer is no. The purpose of this pier is solely humanitarian. It is meant to facilitate the independent distribution of humanitarian assistance to people in need wherever they are found. So it is not meant to facilitate any other objective, including displacement or any other political or military objectives. It is solely meant to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
And that point, I think, is further exemplified by the UN support for this plan. So the UN has – multiple officials have come out saying they support maritime delivery. The UN is helping organize commodities in Cyprus, and the UN is leading on the coordination and distribution of the commodities once they hit the ground in Gaza.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: And Admiral Cooper here. I’d just like to add emphasis to two important points: one, that the pier will be operational and delivering aid to the people of Gaza in the coming days, and two, as was mentioned, there is only one purpose to this pier, that is it, and that is to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. There is no other purpose than that. Thanks very much.
MODERATOR: Thank you. For our next question, we’ll go to the live queue and to Mike Wagenheim of i24NEWS in Israel. Mike, if you’d like to go ahead and ask your question.
REPORTER: Yes, thanks so much for holding this briefing today. I’m trying to find out, has there been a role defined yet for the United Nations in taking part in this project, whether it’s in the delivery of aid or some other mechanism? Or are those talks still ongoing?
MR. DIECKHAUS: So I’m happy to answer that question. As I mentioned, the UN is assisting with the organization and tracking of commodities in Cyprus, and then the UN is also participating via the Logistics Cluster in the distribution of commodities once they hit the Gaza shores.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yeah, Admiral Cooper here. I would just add in our support of USAID in the last several weeks, we joined with USAID at the UN in New York to brief more than 40 countries on how this process was – would be working, how it is working, and I think that was well-received by everybody.
REPORTER: Thank you. I ask because the UN stated yesterday that those talks were still going on as to a specific defined role. I appreciate the insight. Thank you.
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah, and just a point of clarification on that – I think it’s good. Talks will continue and they should continue as we evaluate and refine the process, as we learn what works and what needs to be tweaked, but we’re confident that the UN is participating and, as I mentioned, we’ll continue discussing with them how to refine our processes and procedures.
REPORTER: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Next we will go to a pre-submitted question from Andreas Bimbishis from Phileleftheros newspaper in Cyprus. And Andreas asks: “What is the role of Cyprus in this effort? And second, is the U.S. satisfied or did you expect more from the European Union?”
Response Director Dan, we’ll start with you.
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah, so thanks for the question. Cyprus is obviously providing a hosting function and – which includes port facilities, logistics capability, and an organizational function to – in terms of a multinational coordination cell that they lead in Cyprus to organize all the various players, which includes not just United States elements but UK, the EU, United Arab Emirates, just to name a few. There are many other countries that are involved, so Cyprus is helping – coordinating, getting everyone on the same page, on the same schedule.
In terms of any disappointment or expectations, no. I think the – we’ve been working closely with the European Union. We understand that – I don’t want to speak for them, but they are active participants in this corridor, and we expect that to continue and our discussions with them and other donors continue, but we expect the overall participation and volume of assistance only to increase as we get this going.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yeah, I’d simply like to add my thanks to the Cypriot Government for their leadership and support of this entire operation. Would not be possible without them, and I agree on all Dan’s points. There’s been excellent coordination across the board with all the international partners enabled by Cyprus.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Next we’ll go to a question from the live queue, Faouzi Hamza from Hespress in Morocco. Faouzi, please ask your question.
REPORTER: Hello? Do you hear me?
MODERATOR: Yes, we can. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah, thank you so much. I want to know, please – I want to know, please, if this – if this is – has the full support of countries that signed Accord of Abraham such as United of Arabic, the Saudi Arabic, such as Morocco. Thank you.
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know the specifics of every single country. What I can highlight, though, is United Arab Emirates has been an active participant and we expect them to be contributing resources to this – to this – to the JLOTS, to the maritime corridor. And then our discussions with other partners continue. But that’s about all the details I have at the moment.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yeah, I would just add we’ll let individual countries speak for themselves but applaud the efforts of the United Arab Emirates and their cooperation with us as part of this operation.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Next we’ll move to a pre-submitted question from Arar Alshloul from Almashhad in Jordan. And Arar asks, “What ensures that humanitarian aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and is not destroyed, looted, or stolen?”
MR. DIECKHAUS: I’ll take this question. This is a frequent question we get, not just with regards to the maritime corridor but all of our assistance in Gaza. And it’s a great one, because I think starting at the outset recognizing the inherent insecurity and risks that abound in a conflict environment. But humanitarian actors, including our partners, do have processes in place to ensure assistance reaches those for whom it is intended. They conduct community relations, pre-discussions with communities in which they plan to distribute assistance to ensure people are accurately identified, to ensure assistance is able to get in and reach those – exactly who it is intended for. They conduct post-distribution monitoring via phone call or in-person surveys to understand did the assistance actually reach and was kept by those in need.
But I think we would not deny that there is heightened risk in Gaza for a variety of reasons, some of which I laid out at the outset. But we have not received substantial reports of widespread diversion of our own assistance. We understand that it is a constant risk, and there are controls in place that our partners are putting, and it’s something we continue to monitor. But we do not think that the JLOTS, that the maritime corridor is exposed to any additional risk above and beyond that which is already present in Gaza. As I said, we’ll continue to monitor it and make adjustments, and our partners and other humanitarian actors will continue to make adjustments as the risk profile requires.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Next we will take a question from the live queue from Suzy Elgeneidy from Alahram in Egypt. Suzy, please go ahead and ask your question.
I think we’re having —
REPORTER: Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me?
MODERATOR: Yes, we can. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes. Okay, I’m sorry. I’ve been shouting can you hear me, can you hear me. Okay. So my question concerns the – is the assistance, the humanitarian assistance, will be enough to save the Palestinians from hunger or there is a need to enter more assistance from Rafah crossroads? And should Israel be pressured to secure the workers’ safety as it controls now the Rafah crossroad from the Palestinian side? Thank you very much.
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah. Thank you, Suzy, for the important question. So JLOTS in and of itself is insufficient, and I think, as we said at the outset, it is always meant to be additive. What we want to see is the full opening of all existing crossings and potentially the expansion of even more numbers of crossings. The needs in Gaza are so immense that we cannot afford for any crossings to go offline or for a decrease in volume through those crossings.
So by all means, we are pressing for the reopening of any closed crossings, including Rafah, and we are – understand that discussions are ongoing between the regional governments. And we are pressing all parties to come to some sort of arrangement that can more immediately open Rafah and see assistance coming from Egypt increase, to return and increase even more than what we saw prior in order to more effectively deal with the needs in Gaza.
Along with that – so it’s a – there’s one question of getting additional assistance into Gaza. The other question, which I think you were alluding to, is the safety and security of humanitarian workers. That is not just at the border crossings, but obviously includes that at Rafah and Kerem Shalom. It is also the safety and security as they travel about throughout Gaza. And it is the ability of them to more rapidly get through checkpoints, to have missions approved both to the north and within the south. All of this – all of these variables are needed to improve if we’re actually going to see a substantial reduction of humanitarian need. So fully concur all this needs to be worked on. Again, with regards to the JLOTS, this is additive. It is by no means going to replace any individual crossing, nor is it intended to. It is meant to give additional volume as well as an additional option for humanitarian partners to use to better access populations as they see fit.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: I have nothing else to add. Those are great remarks from Dan.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Next, we’ll go to a question in the chat from Monjed Jadou of the Palestinian News Network in the Palestinian territories, who asks: “Is there any coordination with the Palestinian Authority?”
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah, I’ll take that. This – the concept of the JLOTS, of the maritime corridor has been discussed with the Palestinian Authority. Our understanding is that there is general support. Obviously, there are questions on how – the particulars of how this would work and how it would ensure independent distribution of assistance; those discussions are ongoing, but our understanding, there is general support for overall anything that would result in increased assistance for those in need. Over.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We’ll next take a pre-submitted question from Lazar Berman of The Times of Israel. And Lazar asks: “If Hamas inflicts casualties on U.S. servicemembers operating the JLOTS pier, will the U.S. strike Hamas?”
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: It’s Admiral Cooper – I won’t address a hypothetical, but I would like to reinforce a point that was made yesterday along with conceptual comments I made this morning. Just to be clear, this humanitarian effort is intended to relieve the suffering of the people of Gaza, and we’d like to call on all parties not to interfere with the delivery of lifesaving assistance. Again, the military aspect of this is to establish logistics to enable the flow of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. So anyone interfering with that will interfere with assistance going right to the people of Gaza, and we’ll leave it at that.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We’ll take another pre-submitted question from Robert Tollast at The National in the United Arab Emirates. And Robert asks: “How do you see JLOTS capability evolving after some reports highlighted readiness challenges and aging vessels?”
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yeah, I’ll take that – Admiral Cooper here. We’re fully ready – no issues with vessels. We have a full complement of people – about a thousand American soldiers and sailors, the overwhelming majority of whom are at sea, that are ready to execute this very important mission. There are no obstacles right now to the execution of the mission, which is to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We will next go to a pre-submitted question from Monalisa Freiha of Annahar in Lebanon, who asks: “About securing aid delivery – after the accident of World Central Kitchen, who will secure aid delivery?”
MR. DIECKHAUS: Yeah, thanks for the question. And first because it was mentioned, we should pay tribute to both those World Central Kitchen staff that were killed as well as the over 200 humanitarian staff members that have been killed, including some in the recent days. It’s a tragedy that people that are there to deliver assistance to those in need have to operate under such awful conditions at great risk to themselves.
So the question on who – how is humanitarian assistance being secured, I kind of alluded to that already but just to reiterate that humanitarian organizations have policies and procedures that they use to ensure security of their movements and their operations, whether they include service delivery or delivery of commodities. That usually entails community engagement, and then we understand that as being conducted in Gaza.
But if you’re referencing the World Central Kitchen strike, one of the overarching things that we’ve been clear about – both before and after the maritime corridor – is that deconfliction failures, as was represented by the World Central Kitchen strike, need to stop. They need to end. They don’t just need to be mitigated; they need to end. Our partners and all humanitarian actors need to be able to operate safely and civilians need to be able to – to access that assistance.
So this has informed all of our discussions with the Israeli Government as well as their military on the coordination procedures that are required to better ensure the safety and security of staff. Those discussions are ongoing. We’re not at all satisfied with where they’re at now. We continue to press them. It is a highlight of our coordination for JLOTS, but it is by no means limited to JLOTS that we want to see better notification and better adherence to respect for protected sites and movements. So it is an ongoing risk, one that we’re continuing to press the Israelis on, and we’ll continue to work on that in conjunction with our partners.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We’ll now take a question from the live queue, from Paul Adams with the BBC. Paul, please go ahead and ask your question.
REPORTER: Hi, thank you very much. I hope you can hear me. It’s just following up on the security question. From what I understand, from what you both have been saying, is that it is up to the international aid agencies to carry out their routine engagement with the community and so forth. But obviously we have had situations over the last few months where the situation on the ground has been incredibly chaotic. Are you saying that there will be no armed presence at the point of entry as part of your security arrangements? And separately, you talk about the role of the UN. Are we talking about UNRWA being part of this process? Thank you.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Dan, you want to take that first and I’ll fill in on the security side?
MR. DIECKHAUS: Sure, absolutely. Yeah. Admiral Cooper will discuss the security at the site itself. But when I was talking about community engagements, that is how humanitarian organizations conduct their distribution. So that would be leaving the site to populations in need would be conducted in accordance with their own safety and security procedures. To date we have received no indication that the UN or other humanitarian partners desire armed escorts, nor is it something that we are promoting. We understand that they believe that the safety and security of their own staff and potential recipients of that aid is better facilitated through the community engagement strategies that they employ.
On the participation of the UN – yes, we believe that the entire UN family should and will be able to benefit from the distribution networks that will be set up for commodities coming in through the JLOTS corridor. The primary UN partner that will be handling distribution will be the Logistics Cluster, which is run by the World Food Program, but it is definitely a UN-wide participation. Over.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yeah, Admiral Cooper here, let me just – a couple comments. As I mentioned, force protection of U.S. forces participating in this mission is a top priority. As such in the last several weeks the United States and Israel kind of developed a integrated security plan to protect all the personnel who are working at the JLOTS emplacement in the surrounding area, which we call the marshalling yard. We are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved, and although I won’t be able to talk specifics on what exactly that looks like, it’s a very comprehensive effort.
I would also add around the area of the JLOTS emplacement and the adjacent marshalling yard on the beach, we do have a series of specific protocols for checkpoint and convoy monitoring, just as a mechanism to increase transparency and coordination around the JLOTS as humanitarian assistance flows in over the beach. Over.
MODERATOR: We’ll move to our last question. And I’ll take a question from the live queue, from Jared Szuba of Al-Monitor. Jared, please go ahead and ask your question.
REPORTER: Hi all. Thank you for doing this. Just wondering if you can clarify a few points. One, I understand there will be an emphasis on physical distance between military and humanitarian personnel to ensure neutrality. Does that mean IDF personnel will not be inside the on-shore facility? And then I’m wondering if you can clarify who will be responsible for managing communication and coordination between the IDF, UN personnel, and civilian traffic. And then finally, Dan, I believe you said you’re not at all satisfied at this time with the current – I guess for lack of a better term – deconfliction. Have you gentlemen seen any institutional changes in the IDF’s targeting procedures that could reduce the concerns among NGOs and international partners? Thank you.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Dan, you want to hit a couple pieces, and I’ll hit on some security aspects of it?
MR. DIECKHAUS: Sure, absolutely. On the last point, on deconfliction, I don’t think USAID is privy to the targeting practices of the IDF. What I can say is that we are – we continue to have dialogue with them on best practices, on checkpoint procedures, and things that can reduce the risk for both, I think, IDF and humanitarian personnel, to reduce the points of tension that we have seen in the past that have led to less than ideal outcomes, as well as better coordination and communication channels that would provide in extremis communication possibilities between the humanitarian community and the Government of Israel. Those things are ongoing. I think we’ve seen some movement; we’re not quite there yet. And yeah, I mean, I think overall we are – we are still not satisfied, and we won’t be satisfied as long as we continue to see aid worker deaths and injuries. So that is – maybe that’s a high bar. I think we would consider it a low bar, that these workers are able to operate safely and securely without exception.
And I’ll turn it back over to Brad on some of those more specific security questions with regards to the site.
VICE ADMIRAL COOPER: Yes. First, broadly, we do have two very large communication and coordination cells, as I mentioned – one established in Cyprus, one established in Israel – as mechanisms to do all the coordination associated with the JLOTS delivery – coming in to Cyprus, distribution from Cyprus out to sea, from the sea to Gaza, and then inward. I’d also just emphasize, as I mentioned before, we do have protocols in place for checkpoint management and convoy monitoring as a mechanism to just increase that coordination. And then finally, we do have a very tight communications plan in the area around the JLOTS establishment. I think all those pieces that are in place around JLOTS for the mission to be successful.
MODERATOR: And that concludes today’s call. I am sorry that we could not get to all questions today. I would like to thank Response Director Dan Dieckhaus and Vice Admiral Brad Cooper for joining us, and I would like to thank all of our callers for participating. If you have any questions about today’s call, you may contact the London International Media Hub at mediahublondon@state.gov.