A U.S. Army landing craft is seen beached in Ashdod, May, 2024, after being swept by wind and current from the temporary humanitarian pier in the Gaza Strip. AP
The floating pier constructed by the US military to transport aid into Gaza broke apart on Tuesday by strong winds and heavy seas just over a week after it became operational.
This is a major blow to the $320 million American project to create a maritime corridor for humanitarian supplies into the war-torn strip.
The damage occurred three days after heavy seas forced two small US Army vessels to beach in Israel, while two other vessels broke free of their moorings and were anchored near the pier, according to US Central Command.
US officials say, however, that the steel causeway connected to the beach in Gaza and the floating pier is being repaired and reassembled at a port in southern Israel. The causeway would then be reinstalled and working again next week.
While early Pentagon estimates suggested the pier could deliver up to 150 truckloads of aid a day when in full operation, that has yet to happen, according to an AP report.
In the first week of operations, the US pier accounted for only 27 of the 70 trucks of aid that the UN had been able to round up from all land and sea crossings into Gaza for distribution to civilians.
In addition, bad weather has hampered progress in getting aid into Gaza from the pier. Similarly, the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get aid into the region by land routes.
Heavier sea conditions also delayed the deployment of the pier for several weeks, as the system sat docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod waiting for favourable conditions.
The temporary pier, called the Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), requires good sea conditions. CNN reported previously that JLOTS can only be operated safely in a maximum of three-foot waves and winds less than approximately 15 miles per hour.
Moreover, the pier had a troubled start, with desperate Gazans commandeering the first trucks from it. One man in the crowd was shot dead in still unexplained circumstances.
A sideshow
Aid groups have had mixed reactions — both welcoming any amount of aid for starving Palestinians besieged by the nearly eight-month-old Israeli war and decrying the pier as a distraction that took pressure off Israel to open more border crossings, which are far more productive, AP said.
It’s “a sideshow,” said Bob Kitchen, a top official of the International Rescue Committee.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the complex pier operation also adds a dangerous new dimension to Washington’s involvement in the Gaza war, which includes supplying Israel with billions of dollars of weapons. While US officials say American forces won’t step foot in Gaza, the pier pushes them to the edge of a chaotic battlefield.
Three US troops have been injured at sea already. Two have returned to duty, and one is receiving treatment at an Israeli facility.
Before the pier construction was completed, some UN and humanitarian officials feared that the US project was in danger of becoming a “smokescreen” for the Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Guardian reported.
Aid officials expressed fear that the US aid will be diverted to camps set up for fleeing people from Rafah.
Another fear is that the pier would be used to displace Palestinians from the strip.
“There are real fears that Israel could use it to displace Gaza’s population and carry out ethnic cleansing, which it failed to achieve by force,” Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said in a statement.
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