The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, formally ending an extraordinary but troubled effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The pier, announced by President Joe Biden during a televised address to Congress in March, was a massive endeavor that took about 1,000 U.S. forces to execute. Aid began flowing via the pier to Gaza in May, an operation aimed at helping avert famine after months of war between Israel and Hamas.
But bad weather and distribution challenges inside Gaza limited the effectiveness of what the U.S. military says was its biggest aid delivery effort ever in the Middle East. The pier was only 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 U.S. 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.
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’s punishing war on Hamas.
“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 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’s punishing war on Hamas.
“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.