on May 29, 2024, 12:10 pm
US troops on 28 May “temporarily removed” a floating pier built on the coast of Gaza after several incidents in which four US military vessels were beached, one service member was critically injured, and a section of the structure was damaged in bad weather.
“The rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take at least over a week, and, following completion, will need to be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.
The $320 million pier, allegedly built to deliver humanitarian aid to starving Gazans, was anchored to land on 16 May and started operations soon after. Nevertheless, last week, the Pentagon confirmed that none of the humanitarian aid that entered Gaza via the pier had been unloaded.
Since the pier began operations, the UN has transported 137 trucks of aid from the pier – the equivalent of 900 metric tons – according to officials from the World Food Programme (WFP) who spoke with Reuters.
UN aid agencies and other humanitarian groups said last month that Gaza needs at least 500 to 600 trucks of humanitarian aid per day to sustain in the dire situation created by Israel's genocidal war.
US President Joe Biden announced plans to build the pier in March, five months after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first proposed the idea.
Since its announcement, human rights groups and Palestinian officials have stressed that the small trickle of aid that can enter via the pier would not meet the needs of the population of Gaza.
Most international organizations have repeatedly stated that Washington should instead pressure Tel Aviv to allow the unimpeded entry of aid via the seven land crossings that lead into the besieged enclave.
“As Israeli attacks intensify on Rafah, the unpredictable trickle of aid into Gaza has created a mirage of improved access while the humanitarian response is in reality on the verge of collapse,” Amnesty International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The ability of aid groups and medical teams to respond has now all but crumbled, with temporary fixes such as a ‘floating dock’ and new crossing points having little impact,” the statement adds.
The Rafah crossing, one of the main entry points for humanitarian aid, has been shuttered since Israeli troops violently seized it on 7 May.
Responses
« Back to index | View thread »