(Washington) An artificial port built by the US military to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be operational “in the coming days” after delays due to weather conditions, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Faced with restrictions on aid deliveries by land imposed by Israel on the Palestinian territory, American President Joe Biden announced the establishment of this temporary structure at the beginning of March.
The port, costing about $320 million, is complete, but the Pentagon announced last week that swells were preventing the structure from being docked to the Gaza shore and for now it remained in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
“In the next few days, I think it will be operational,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday, without giving a specific date.
US Navy vessels are on site to facilitate the operation.
An American container ship left Cyprus last Thursday bound for Gaza with humanitarian aid on board which will be unloaded on this infrastructure.
The international community and NGOs emphasize that this maritime corridor, as well as the airdrops of aid by planes from several countries to Gaza, cannot replace the delivery of aid by land.
The war in Gaza was sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, which left more than 1,170 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israelis.
The Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation cost the lives of at least 35,173 people, the vast majority civilians, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, the Islamist movement which took power in Gaza in 2007.