Biden’s $320M Gaza pier has detached and drifted onto an Israeli beach, highlighting recent setbacks in the US humanitarian aid initiative, including injuries to US soldiers and complications in aid delivery.
A segment of the $320 million floating pier, constructed and installed off the coast of Gaza, has floated onto an Israeli beach after breaking off. The incident on Saturday is the most recent blow to the US humanitarian aid initiative. Two days earlier, three US soldiers were reported hurt, one of them gravely, on the pier.
“An American vessel used to unload humanitarian aid from ships into the Gaza Strip via a floating pier disconnected from a small boat tugging it this morning due to stormy seas, leading it to get stuck on the coast of Ashdod, eyewitnesses say,” noted Emanuel Fabian, the military correspondent for The Times of Israel.
According to Fabian, “another ship was then sent to try and extract the stuck vessel, but also got beached,” indicating that the recovery attempt has not gone well either.
Still, another US Army craft was attempting to save the pier portion when it became caught in shallow waters. The now-beached portion of the floating pier detached and floated away while US ships were transporting two of its sections to the Port of Ashdod in southern Israel throughout the night. Video footage shows American forces standing on the beach, powerless.
The following is stated in an official statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM):
This morning four U.S. Army vessels supporting the maritime humanitarian aid mission in Gaza were affected by heavy sea states. The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier.
The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. Efforts to recover the vessels are under way with assistance from the Israeli Navy.
Before the first trucks carrying aid unloaded from the pier could reach a distribution center run by the World Food Programme, desperate Palestinians surrounded and looted them, putting the dock operation on hold for two days last week.
Given that there are other alternative landways for aid entering Gaza but that Israel’s military has barred them, the pier has been the focus of contention.
Now, the US government has spent $320 million building a pier to get over its own beneficiary’s land-route blockade in an attempt to lessen that destruction amid reports of starvation. However, using it has proven challenging, particularly given the unfavorable weather in the eastern Mediterranean.
The pier will, at most, barely scratch the surface of the enormous humanitarian problem. Daniel Dieckhaus, director of USAID’s Levant response management team, stated, “I just want to be clear that this humanitarian maritime corridor alone is not enough to meet the staggering needs in Gaza, but it is an important addition.” “It is meant to augment, not replace or substitute for land crossings into Gaza.”
Now, more than two months after President Biden initially announced the grandiose project, with a portion of the pier lodged on a beach in Israel, the entire endeavor is starting to seem a little embarrassing due to a series of setbacks.
GreatGameIndia recently reported that during a press conference, the Pentagon’s spokesman, Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, admitted to reporters on Tuesday that Biden’s Gaza Pier stunt was a total failure.
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