U.S. military begins Gaza Strip aid deliveries from floating pier
The U.S. military said Friday it has started moving aid to the Gaza Strip using a floating pier it built off the coast of the Palestinian territory as part of efforts to boost humanitarian deliveries to the war-torn enclave.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement no U.S. troops went ashore as trucks began using the makeshift dock.
President Joe Biden announced the pier would be constructed in March as aid officials pleaded with Israel to improve land-route access to Gaza for relief supplies. But the project has been delayed by bad weather. It has also been expensive, costing an estimated $320 million and involving 1,000 U.S. troops to build.
The U.N. and international officials have stressed the maritime access for aid deliveries should not be viewed as a substitute for land routes to Gaza via Israel and Egypt, which can handle a higher volume of trucks.
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How much aid can the Gaza pier handle?
U.S. officials have said the pier will initially handle about 90 trucks a day, rising to 150 when fully operational.
Since March, an average of 171 trucks per day have entered Gaza, according to the U.S.-established Famine Early Warning Systems Network. The U.N. says that prior to Hamas' Oct. 7. attack on Israel about 500 trucks of aid entered Gaza each day. More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Senior U.N. officials and aid groups accuse Israel of hindering aid deliveries into and within Gaza. Israel denies that assertion. Instead, it blames the U.N. and its partners for creating logistical bottlenecks. Israel's governments also says Hamas routinely steals aid intended for civilians. The U.N. and Hamas dispute this.
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Will Gaza pier put U.S. troops in harm's way?
Some critics have expressed concerns the temporary dock could leave U.S. troops vulnerable to attack.
"I think the pier is a disaster waiting to happen," said Michael DiMino, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism officer who is now a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.
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"I don't like to draw flippant comparisons to Mogadishu or Benghazi," DiMino said in a recent call with reporters, referring to Somalia and Libya, where lax security led to American military and diplomatic deaths.
"I would just say there are a number of logistical and operational challenges here and I am very concerned about mission creep and what starts as a pier becomes U.S. Marines on the beach in Gaza."
How does the aid pier operation work?
The pier is being used to deliver aid to Gaza that is first sent to the island of Cyprus.
There, it is screened for weapons and loaded onto commercial ships.
These ships then transport the cargo to a discharge platform about 200 miles south of Cyprus, where smaller ships pick it up and deliver it to the pier, known as a Trident Pier after the staff of the Greek god Poseidon.
Israel's military then examines the cargo before releasing it to the U.N.'s World Food Programme for distribution.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gaza aid deliveries from U.S.-built floating pier begin