WASHINGTON (AP) — A series of security, logistical and weather problems have derailed the plan to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza via a pier built by the US military.
Broken by strong winds and rough seas just over a week after it was commissioned, the project is facing criticism that it has not lived up to its initial forecasts or its $320 million price tag.
U.S. officials, however, say the steel causeway connected to Gaza Beach and the floating pier are under repair and reassembled in a port in southern Israel, then will be reinstalled and operating again next week.
While early Pentagon estimates suggested the pier could deliver up to 150 aid trucks per day when fully operational, this hasn’t happened yet. Bad weather hampered the delivery of aid to Gaza from the jetty, while the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to deliver aid to the region by land.
Aid groups have had mixed reactions – both welcoming any aid to starving Palestinians besieged by Israel’s nearly eight-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, and decrying the pier as a diversion that has distanced Israel from pressure to open more border crossings, which is far from being the case. more productive.
It’s “a sideshow,” said Bob Kitchen, a senior official with the International Rescue Committee.
The Biden administration has said from the start that the pier was not meant to be a total solution and that any help would be helpful.
“No one said at the outset that this was going to be a panacea for all the humanitarian aid problems that still exist in Gaza,” national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. “I think sometimes the U.S. military is expected – because it’s so good – that everything it touches will turn to gold in an instant.”
“We knew coming in that it was going to be difficult,” he added. “And that turned out to be a difficult task.”
Before the war, Gaza received an average of around 500 trucks of aid each day. The United States Agency for International Development says it needs a steady flow of 600 trucks a day to ease the struggle for food and bring people back from on the verge of starvation.
These images released by Maxar Technologies show the newly completed pier in the Gaza Strip on May 18, 2024, top, and the remaining section of the temporary pier on May 29, 2024. A series of security, logistical and weather problems have put messed up the plan. to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza via a pier built by the US military. Broken by high winds and rough seas just over a week after it was commissioned, critics complain the project has failed to live up to its original billing or its $320 million price tag . (Satellite images © 2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
The aid delivered via the pier was enough to feed thousands of people for a month, but U.N. data shows it did little to reduce the overall needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Here’s a look at the pier’s timeline, the issues it’s faced, and what might come next:
MARCH: ANNOUNCEMENT AND PREPARATION
MARCH 7: President Joe Biden announces his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address.
“Tonight, I am ordering the United States military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary dock in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Gaza, capable of receiving large cargoes carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter,” he said.
But even in those first moments, he noted that the pier would increase the amount of humanitarian aid arriving in Gaza, but that Israel “must do its part” and let in more aid.
MARCH 8: Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, tells reporters it will take “up to 60 days” to deploy forces and build the project.
MARCH 12: Four U.S. Army boats loaded with tons of equipment and steel pier segments leave Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia and head to the Atlantic Ocean on what is expected to be a voyage of a month to Gaza.
Brigade commander Col. Sam Miller warns that transit and construction will be highly dependent on the weather and high seas they encounter.
LATE MARCH: U.S. Army ships encounter high seas and bad weather as they cross the Atlantic, slowing their pace.
APRIL: CONSTRUCTION AND HOPE
APRIL 1: September World Central Kitchen Auxiliary Workers are killed in an Israeli airstrike while traveling in clearly marked vehicles on an Israeli-authorized delivery mission.
The strike fuels ongoing concerns about the safety of aid workers and prompts aid agencies to suspend the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
APRIL 19: US officials confirm that the UN World Food Program has agreed to help deliver aid to Gaza by sea route once construction is complete.
APRIL 25: Major construction of port facilities on the coast near Gaza City begins to take shape. The onshore site is where aid from the causeway will be delivered and handed over to humanitarian agencies.
APRIL 30: Satellite photos show the U.S. Navy ship USNS Roy P. Benavidez and Army ships working on assembling the pier and causeway about 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from the port at earth.
MAY: THE PIER OPENS…THEN CLOSES
MAY 9: The US ship Sagamore is the first aid vessel to leave Cyprus and head to Gaza and ultimately to the dock. An elaborate security and inspection post has been built in Cyprus to monitor aid coming from several countries.
MAY 16: Well after the target deadline of 60 days, construction and assembly of the pier off the coast of Gaza and the causeway connecting to the coastline are completed after more than a week of bad weather and other delays.
MAY 17: The first trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip walk down the newly constructed dock and towards the secure area on land, where they will be unloaded and the cargo distributed to humanitarian agencies for delivery by truck to Gaza.
May 18: Crowds of desperate Palestinians swarm a convoy of humanitarian trucks coming from the dock, snatching cargo from 11 of the 16 vehicles before they reach a UN warehouse for distribution.
May 19-20: first food from the pier — a limited number of high-nutrition cookies — are reaching people in need in central Gaza, according to the World Food Program.
Aid organizations are suspending deliveries from the dock for two days while the United States works with Israel to open alternative land routes from the dock and improve security.
MAY 24: So far, just over 1,000 tons of aid have been delivered to Gaza via the US-built jetty, and USAID later claims all of it has been distributed to Gaza.
MAY 25: Strong winds and rough seas damage the pier and cause four US military ships operating there to run aground, injuring three service members, including one who is in critical condition.
Two ships ran aground in Gaza near the base of the pier and two ran aground near Ashkelon in Israel.
MAY 28: Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says large portions of the causeway are being removed from the beach and transferred to an Israeli port for repairs. The basis of the causeway remains on the Gaza coast.
It also says aid to Cyprus is being loaded onto ships and will be ready to unload at the dock once it is back in place.
MAY 29: Two of the army ships stranded due to bad weather are now back at sea and the other two near the dock are being freed, with the help of the Israeli Navy.
AND AFTER?
In the coming days, sections of the causeway will be reconstructed and, by the middle of next week, they will be returned to the Gaza coast, where the causeway will once again be attached to the beach, the Pentagon said.
“When we’re able to re-anchor the pier, you’ll be able to see that aid coming in pretty steadily,” Singh said Tuesday. “We will continue to operate this temporary pier for as long as possible.”
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AP Writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.
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