WASHINGTON: On Wednesday, the US military announced that its operation to deploy and use a temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza had ended, formally concluding an extraordinary but problematic attempt to provide relief to Palestinians.
The pier was launched by President Joe Biden in March during his televised address to Congress. It took about 1000 people from US forces to execute it as well. In May, food supplies started flowing through the pier towards Gaza aimed at averting famine following months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
According to the U.S. military, however, bad weather and distribution challenges inside Gaza made this what they claimed was their largest ever Middle East aid delivery effort ineffective. During 20 days only did the dock operate.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command said in a news briefing.
Cooper stated that efforts would now be redirected into Ashdod port for sea arrivals rather than attempting to distribute aid in Gaza. Later on today or on ships already bound for Cyprus are some five million pounds of aid which will be heading for Ashdod according to him.
“Our assessment is that this temporary pier has done exactly what it was meant to do in terms of surging humanitarian assistance into Gaza. It has ensured we get life-saving assistance quickly out there amongst civilians in Gaza by our estimate nearly 20 million tonnes were delivered just beyond,” he added.
This became an area of conflict within Congress with Republicans calling it a political stunt by Biden who had faced growing calls from fellow Democrats for greater support for Palestinians after steadfastly backing Israel’s brutal war against Hamas.
“This chapter might be over in President Biden’s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not. The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
The expected cost of the pier to Pentagon which was intended to be in use until end of July is less than $230m as anticipated by Cooper.
Cooper has so far said that “Over 1 million pounds has been delivered through Ashdod at this point and I think there’s more we can have done with that pathway.”
“Millions more pounds of aid going through that pathway are just around the corner,” he added.
Although it brought essential goods to a marshalling area on Gaza’s coast, the 1200-foot (370 meters) long floating dock kept having to be relocated due to inclement weather.
Since June when rough seas forced it into Ashdod port, pier has not been in use. It was uncertain whether or not the pier at Ashdod was being dismantled by U.S. military prior to its return home.
Piling up on Gaza beaches, aid deliveries stopped when UN World Food Program suspended operations at the pier in June for security reasons.
For a long time, the UN had argued that maritime deliveries were not equivalent to land access. It called for the focus on land routes in the provision of humanitarian supplies in the strip, where last month a global hunger monitor warned of high risk of famine.
According to aid officials, Gaza needs approximately 600 trucks with humanitarian and commercial supplies daily to meet needs of its population.
