(Washington) The construction by the US military of the artificial and temporary port to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Gaza Strip is more than half complete, the US Department of Defense announced on Wednesday. .
Faced with Israeli blockages regarding the delivery of aid by land in the besieged Palestinian territory and in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, American President Joe Biden announced in early March the establishment of this installation.
“To date, we are more than 50 percent complete with the port,” Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters.
This port, the construction cost of which is expected to amount to some $320 million, will be operational at the beginning of May, according to the American authorities. But this initiative cannot replace land convoys, Washington warned.
The announcement comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East. The head of American diplomacy visited Kerem Shalom on Wednesday, a crossing point for humanitarian aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip.
The day before in Jordan, he had spoken of “real and significant progress” in the rate of aid entry but that there was “still much to do”.
A senior US administration official said last week that all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents face food insecurity.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory then under strict Israeli blockade, carried out an attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians. , according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in the territory which has so far left 34,568 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, in power in Gaza.