(WatchDogReport.org) – The Pentagon is permanently dismantling a humanitarian pier off Gaza’s coast after only being in operation for three weeks. The pier, which cost $230 million, was always meant to be a strictly temporary solution, according to the Pentagon’s press secretary, Major General Patrick Ryder.
The press secretary did not have any further announcements regarding when exactly the mission would end. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has also stated that the pier’s operations will be wound down in “short order.”
The pier has already been criticized by aid groups as wasteful and inefficient. The 20-day period of its operation has been plagued by severe weather and issues with security that have limited the amount of aid entering Gaza. President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed” that the project failed. The weather conditions have affected the pier so severely that it has reportedly become detached from the shore. Efforts to reattach the pier failed.
Israel has also been accused of impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza with needlessly complicated bureaucracy. The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to facilitate humanitarian corridors. A UN-backed report in June found that there was still a risk of famine developing in Gaza. Biden announced the pier project in March in his State of the Union address while Israel faced criticism for the slow deliveries of aid by land.
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant has announced plans to build a replacement pier at Israel’s Ashdod port so that the delivery of aid can continue. It is not yet clear when the new pier will be functional. Ryder stated that the pier, its support vessels, and its equipment would be transported to Ashdod, where they will remain until a replacement pier is attached. No re-anchoring date has been set.
Over 8,100 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered so far from the pier to the marshaling area for it to be collected and delivered to Gaza by humanitarian groups. The delivery of aid faced further setbacks in June when nearby military operations being conducted by Israel’s military forced the UN World Food Programme to suspend aid deliveries from the pier.
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