The U.S. military has begun constructing a pier off of Gaza’s coast that isn’t expected to be operational until early next month, though it will allow for a surge of humanitarian aid to flow into the strip once it’s ready.
U.S. forces intend to build a pier anchored miles off of the Gaza coast and a causeway that will jut out from the Gaza coast into the Mediterranean Sea. The plan is for aid to travel to Cyprus, where it will be loaded onto ships and travel roughly 200 miles from there to the floating pier, known as a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore capability, or JLOTS, where it will then be loaded onto new vessels that will go from the pier to the causeway. Once the aid gets to the causeway, it will then be transported to land and distributed into Gaza.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that U.S. forces have begun building the port and said it would be operational in early May.
At their initial operating capacity, U.S. forces should be able to get a throughput of 90 aid trucks a day and scale up to 150 daily at full operating capacity, according to a senior military official.
Roughly 1,000 U.S. soldiers and sailors are involved in the building of the pier and causeway. Most will sleep on the RFA Cardigan Bay, a U.K. naval ship, at sea, except those coordinating the efforts in Cyprus and in Israel, according to the military official.
The area on Gaza’s coast where the aid will arrive, which Ryder described as a “marshaling yard,” was hit by Hamas mortar rounds on Monday, he confirmed.
“The incident in no way delays our efforts to establish the maritime corridor,” Ryder explained. “When it comes to the temporary pier and the causeway, those are being constructed offshore out at sea and are essentially nowhere near mortar range. … It’s important also to highlight that this occurred before any U.S. forces have started moving anything. There’ll be no U.S. forces on the ground. And as I understand it, there’s no U.S. equipment per se in this marshaling yard.”
The Biden administration has sought to get more aid into Gaza given the dire humanitarian conditions in the strip, and the pier is a complementary way to do that. President Joe Biden announced his decision to direct the military to build the pier during his State of the Union address.
Palestinians are facing a significant humanitarian situation, including the threat of famine and starvation. The entire population of Gaza, roughly 2.2. million people, faces acute food insecurity, more than half of the population in northern Gaza is facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, nearly 30% of children in northern Gaza are showing signs of severe malnutrition, and nearly a quarter of the population in southern Gaza is facing catastrophic food insecurity, according to a senior administration official.
The administration is trying to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire that would include a stoppage in the war that would allow for the surge in aid and for it to be able to move through Gaza without fear of being caught in the crossfire of war.
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An Israeli airstrike killed seven international aid workers earlier this month, which prompted international outrage. Approximately 200 aid workers have been killed over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas.
The United States put a deal together that Israel agreed to and Hamas rejected earlier this month, according to a different senior administration official. It would’ve stopped the fighting for six weeks, led to the release of the vulnerable Israeli hostages held since Oct. 7, the surge of aid, and it would have allowed Palestinians who fled to southern Gaza to return to the north without any restrictions, the official said.