US aid dock carries ‘lots of risks’ but could feed two million a day

The Pentagon this week sent military vessels to the Mediterranean, where US troops will help to build a temporary pier to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.

President Joe Biden announced the plan last week after demanding that Israel do more to allow aid into the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine.

But the mini port will not be up and running until early May, the Pentagon said, raising questions about Washington’s priorities as it continues to back Israel in its war on Gaza. The National explains how the pier will work and what it will accomplish.

Q

Why does the US want to build a dock?

A

The announcement of an aid dock was made as the US and other countries drop aid from planes into the enclave.

These operations are dangerous and cannot provide enough sustenance for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

Israel has refused to allow aid to be delivered to its port of Ashdod, 30km north of Gaza.

The flow of aid into Gaza has slowed to a trickle as Israel keeps lorries waiting for days or weeks at border crossings.

Israel also inspects aid lorries in Egypt, creating long delays as security personnel search for fuel or anything that might be of use to Hamas.

Because Israel maintains a total blockade of Gaza through its air, sea and land access points, the US-built dock is one way to get aid into the besieged enclave.

Aid provided directly by the US, Israel’s top ally and benefactor, will not be subject to the same inspections as land deliveries.

How will it be built and how much aid can it handle?

The Pentagon says it will take more than 1,000 troops to build the dock, which it has described as a “temporary offshore maritime pier”.

Despite it being a sea operation, the effort is being led by the US Army, with the navy acting in a supporting role. The army has more than 130 ships of various sizes under its command.

The 550-metre pier is part of the joint logistics over the shore (Jlots) system, and falls under the command of the 7th Transport Brigade.

The dock will work around the clock and will be able to unload up to two million meals a day, as well as medicine, water and other essentials that are currently in short supply in the enclave.

Christopher Pehrson, a retired US colonel who wrote a military study on Jlots operations, said that without a significant presence on the shore – not necessarily American – there was a risk of an aid bottleneck.

“There’s lots of risks. There’s political risks, there’s material risk,” Mr Pehrson told The National. “If there’s a bad actor on the ground, that can really disrupt things.

“The negative press that would come out of that would be probably more overwhelming than anything positive that would come out of it.

“At the same time, there are people suffering. There’s a humanitarian crisis, both in terms of food, water and potential disease outbreak. So something needs to be done. It’s just tragic.”

Mr Pehrson said the pier, which has not been used since 2010, would remind enemies of the US of a forgotten capability.

A US private advisory company called Fogbow will play a key role in the overall plan, a source working on the project told The National.

“Our organisation essentially stood up to do this. The whole team were hired as advisers for the project,” the source said.

“We are a small group of former military, USAid, CIA, UN. We don’t do security. We combine the skills of those groups together as advisers.

“We set up the whole mechanism and we are very confident it will work. We just need the funding to get started.”

What other maritime efforts are taking place?

Several countries have been discussing a maritime aid route that would deliver food from Cyprus.

On Tuesday, the Open Arms, a charity ship carrying about 200 tonnes of food destined for the enclave, left a port in Cyprus as a test run for the sea corridor. Officials from the UAE, UK, US, Qatar, EU and the UN met by video link to discuss establishing a maritime assistance corridor.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the initiative would help to “close the gap” in aid and called on the nations to “make sure that we’re doing everything possible by every means possible to serve, support those who need it by land, by sea or by air”.

A retired US colonel said that without a significant troop presence on the shore there is a risk of an aid bottleneck