(Washington) The United States has begun construction of a pier in Gaza, the Pentagon announced Thursday, a project intended to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory bombed and besieged by Israel.
Faced with delays and blockages by Israel regarding the delivery by land of humanitarian aid to a Gaza Strip hit by a humanitarian disaster, American President Joe Biden announced in early March the construction of an artificial port.
American military ships “began to build […] the temporary port and sea pier,” Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder told reporters.
The pier should be operational from the beginning of May and “everything is going as planned for the moment,” assured the Pentagon spokesperson.
This temporary seaport should allow military or civilian ships to deposit their cargo. Aid must then be delivered by logistical support vessels to a jetty on the coast.
NGOs will probably be responsible for distributing the aid once delivered to the territory, the Pentagon had already indicated.
U.S. officials said the move would not involve “ground troops” in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
However, American soldiers will be near the Gaza Strip during the construction of the pier, which must be supervised by Israeli troops.
The Israeli army will intervene “to provide security and logistical support,” it said in a statement.
The UN and NGOs regularly remind us that this type of initiative cannot replace an essential increase in the entry of humanitarian aid by land, for a hungry population facing shortages of medical equipment.
The Pentagon is also monitoring “a type of mortar attack” that caused minimal damage in the vicinity of the area where the aid should be landed.
“It’s important to note that all of this happened before U.S. forces started moving anything,” Pat Ryder said.
Cogat, an agency under the Israeli Defense Ministry responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said militants fired mortar shells that targeted an unspecified humanitarian site in the northern Gaza Strip the day before during a visit by UN personnel, without any casualties being reported.
The war in Gaza was triggered after the unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil, which resulted in the death of 1,170 people, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
Israel’s vast military operation has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and left more than 34,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.