The $230 million project, which required 1000 US troops deployed there to build and man, is being questioned by Republicans. Weather has already forced the US humanitarian aid pier in Gaza to be relocated. It's the third time in a month the port has been considered inoperable, with talks that the port has only managed to effectively operate for just 10 days in total.
The U.S. military stated that yet again it is suspending activities of its dock off Gaza, briefly moving the drifting construction to an Israeli port until the high tides and dangerous weather for the pier's construction subsides, authorities said Friday. It is the third time in a month that military officials have been forced to halt aid deliveries via the pier due to weather, and it is the latest setback for the ambitious $230 million humanitarian project that involves 1,000 US troops.
U.S. Headquarters, which directs powers in the area, said relocating the pier was important to prevent harm to the design, "The choice to briefly move the port was not an easy decision yet is important to guarantee the temporary dock can keep on transferring aid from now on." CENTCOM tweeted late Friday, "The pier will quickly re-anchor to the coast of Gaza after the period of expected high seas and resume delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza."
After the United Nations suspended deliveries last week due to security concerns, the fact that humanitarian aid that was transported ashore via the pier is being held at a nearby facility without even reaching distribution yet makes matters even more complicated. On Friday, the United Nations said that it does not know when distribution might resume.
The troubles come as there's simply no time left for the U.S. to utilize the brief dock, which was at first scheduled as a 90-day project that would operate until the end of August before being taken down in time for worsening weather conditions.
The project, which President Joe Biden announced in his March State of the Union address, was intended to provide Gaza's hunger-stricken population with approximately two million meals per day. However, Israeli officials stopped aid trucks at ground crossings due to security concerns that some of the aid might reach Hamas.
More than 3,500 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered via the pier so far, according to CENTCOM on Friday, with approximately 1,000 tons delivered within the past two days. US authorities have recognized that a lot of that help has still not arrived at distribution centres. In any case, they say the aid pier has been key in moving aground genuinely necessary aid that would not have arrived otherwise with the goal being to expand, not replace, the help given by means of ground intersections.
Republican critics have been outraged by the sluggish start, who have referred to the pier as an impractical political endeavour rather than a serious program for international aid. Sen. John McCain's tweet stated, "The only accomplishment has been an increase in cost and risk for the 1,000 US deployed troops." This week, Alabama Republican Representative Mike Rogers referred to the project as an "irresponsible pier experiment" that must be "immediately terminated before catastrophe occurs."
Rogers referred to the three service members who sustained injuries while working on the pier, as well as the damaged Army vessels that ran aground, as "an embarrassment for the administration." However, the program has been defended by the Pentagon as essential in dealing with a dire humanitarian situation.