After operating for fewer than 25 days, the US-built Gaza aid pier will be dismantled, marking the end of a costly mission marked by recurring weather and security challenges.
The United States military has said its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians has ended.
The $230m trouble-prone pier had to be removed repeatedly from Gaza’s shore because of poor weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May.
US military officials said on Wednesday that the pier had achieved its mission despite United Nations estimates that 96 percent of Gaza’s population is food insecure, and one in five Palestinians, or about 495,000 people, face starvation amid Israel’s nine-month war on the territory.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” US Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Cooper said, adding that aid intended for Gaza would now be shipped through Israel’s Port of Ashdod.
Aid groups had criticised the 370-metre (1,200-foot) floating structure as a costly distraction, saying the US should have concentrated on pressuring Israel to allow more aid through Gaza’s land borders.
Given the dire situation, land transport routes were the only effective option to address the level of humanitarian need in war-torn Gaza, the UN and aid groups said.
Gaza’s pier, a political stunt?
US President Joe Biden – who announced the construction of the pier in a televised address in March – had expressed disappointment in its performance as it repeatedly broke free of the shore, causing interruption to its operations.
The pier became a sore point in the US Congress, where Republicans branded it a political stunt by Biden, who announced the plan while under pressure from fellow Democrats to do more to aid Palestinians after months of staunchly supporting Israel’s punishing war on Palestinians in Gaza.
“This chapter might be over in President Biden’s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not. The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” said Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
At least 5 million pounds of aid (2,267 tonnes) for Gaza is now either in Cyprus or on ships, which will be going to Ashdod in the coming days, the US Navy’s Vice Admiral Cooper said.
Cooper also lauded the nearly 20 million pounds of aid (about 9,000 tonnes) facilitated by the pier – during the roughly 20 days it was operational – as an “historically unprecedented operation to deliver aid into an active combat zone without any US boots on the ground”.
However, even distribution of that aid once it reached land has also been a problem, due to the security situation in Gaza.
The UN World Food Programme also suspended deliveries of assistance that arrived via the pier last month amid an investigation into whether the Israeli military had used the structure in a bloody operation to free four Israeli captives which resulted in hundreds of civilian Palestinian casualties.