Al-Jazeera / July 18, 2024
After operating for fewer than 25 days, the US-built Gaza aid pier will be dismantled, marking the end of a costly mission marked by recurring weather and security challenges.
The United States military has said its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians has ended.
The $230m trouble-prone pier had to be removed repeatedly from Gaza’s shore because of poor weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May.
US military officials said on Wednesday that the pier had achieved its mission despite United Nations estimates that 96 percent of Gaza’s population is food insecure, and one in five Palestinians, or about 495,000 people, face starvation amid Israel’s nine-month war on the territory.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” US Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Cooper said, adding that aid intended for Gaza would now be shipped through Israel’s Port of Ashdod.
Aid groups had criticized the 370-metre (1,200-foot) floating structure as a costly distraction, saying the US should have concentrated on pressuring Israel to allow more aid through Gaza’s land borders.
Given the dire situation, land transport routes were the only effective option to address the level of humanitarian need in war-torn Gaza, the UN and aid groups said.
Gaza’s pier, a political stunt ?
US President Joe Biden – who announced the construction of the pier in a televised address in March – had expressed disappointment in its performance as it repeatedly broke free of the shore, causing interruption to its operations.
The pier became a sore point in the US Congress, where Republicans branded it a political stunt by Biden, who announced the plan while under pressure from fellow Democrats to do more to aid Palestinians after months of staunchly supporting Israel’s punishing war on Palestinians in Gaza.
“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,” said Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
At least 5 million pounds of aid (2,267 tons) for Gaza is now either in Cyprus or on ships, which will be going to Ashdod in the coming days, the US Navy’s Vice Admiral Cooper said.
Cooper also lauded the nearly 20 million pounds of aid (about 9,000 tons) facilitated by the pier – during the roughly 20 days it was operational – as an “historically unprecedented operation to deliver aid into an active combat zone without any US boots on the ground”.
However, even distribution of that aid once it reached land has also been a problem, due to the security situation in Gaza.
The UN World Food Program also suspended deliveries of assistance that arrived via the pier last month amid an investigation into whether the Israeli military had used the structure in a bloody operation to free four Israeli captives which resulted in hundreds of civilian Palestinian casualties.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
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US officially ends Gaza floating pier operations
MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / July 17, 2024
The pier was marred by breakdowns and criticized by aid groups as a distraction from Israel’s restriction of aid.
The US military announced on Wednesday that it is shutting down its floating pier off the coast of Gaza, formally closing a humanitarian project experts and aid groups criticized as a public relations stunt.
“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 during a news briefing.
Cooper said that Washington would shift its aid operations to the port of Ashdod in Israel.
Aid groups and former US officials have described the pier as a means to divert attention away from Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza, as well as Israel’s restriction of aid to Palestinians in the area.
“This pier has been an immense and costly distraction from the work that we need to do and the problems we need to solve,” Scott Paul, who leads humanitarian policy at Oxfam, previously told Middle East Eye.
“This was a way of avoiding addressing the most critical obstacles to humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and so I think it’s fair to say that it has not met even the administration’s modest expectations for it.”
The $230m structure, first announced by US President Joe Biden in March and later anchored on 17 May, was initially scheduled to remain operational in Gaza until at least 31 July.
According to US Central Command, the system had delivered over $20m of aid to Gaza. However, the pier was forced to close several times after it broke down and needed repairs.
In total, the pier was only operational for fewer than 25 days, and aid groups only used it for half that time.
The UN World Food Program paused its operations there in June, citing security concerns.
The pause in operations came after Israeli forces entered the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in disguise and using a commercial truck.
Israeli forces came out of the truck and launched a planned hostage rescue operation, which led to a massacre of at least 274 Palestinians at the expense of securing four hostages.
At the end of the attack, an Israeli helicopter used to escort the hostages out of Gaza was seen parked on the beach next to the pier.
The proximity of the Israeli military helicopter to the pier had raised concerns that aid trucks could become targets in the war.
Top Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers also criticised the pier, calling on the Biden administration to shut it down and replace the operation by delivering aid through land routes.
“I urge the administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery,” Rogers wrote in a letter sent to the Biden administration.
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US ends Gaza floating pier mission
Middle East Monitor / July 18, 2024
The US military yesterday announced that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, Reuters reported.
The pier, announced by President Joe Biden during a televised address to Congress in March, took about 1,000 US forces to execute, however it has faced many challenges including becoming detached from land on several occasions as a result of the sea and weather conditions.
Since it was announced, aid groups have warned that the pier would be insufficient to provide the necessary aid to Palestinians trapped in Gaza and suffering as a result of a “man-made famine” forced on them by Israel. All entry ports to Gaza have been closed since early May and Israel vowed to stop food and water entering Gaza in October, effectively promising to starve civilians to death.
Though some aid has arrived into Gaza from the port, after travelling across the Mediterranean from Cyprus, the $320 million structure has only been operational for about 20 days.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
Cooper said efforts to distribute aid to Gaza arriving by sea would now shift to the established port of Ashdod in Israel. At least 5 million pounds of aid, which are either in Cyprus or on ships, will be going to Ashdod in the coming days, he said.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” Cooper said, adding that nearly 20 million pounds of aid was delivered to Gaza.
However critics have said the pier’s main aim was to support Israel’s aggression on Gaza. It is thought to have been used to smuggle in special forces ahead of Israel’s Nuseirat Massacre on 8 June in which 300 Palestinians were killed in an operation carried out to release four Israeli prisoners of war held in Gaza.
The pier became a sore point in Congress, where Republicans branded it a political stunt by Biden, who was under pressure from fellow Democrats to do more to aid Palestinians after months of staunchly supporting Israel in its genocidal war on Gaza.
“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, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
The pier has not been used since June, when it was moved to Ashdod port because of rough seas. It was unclear if the US military had started dismantling the pier at Ashdod before its expected return to the United States.
The UN World Food Program paused operations at the pier in June because of security concerns, causing aid to pile up on the Gaza shore.
The United Nations has long said maritime deliveries were no substitute for land access. It said land routes needed to remain the focus of aid operations in the enclave, where a global hunger monitor last month said there is a high risk of famine.
Aid officials say about 600 trucks of humanitarian and commercial supplies are needed in Gaza daily to meet the needs of the Palestinians in the Strip.
