US to build floating pier to ferry aid
White House announces plan for Gaza relief
Facing warnings that the war-ravaged Gaza Strip is on the precipice of widespread famine, the United States on Thursday announced plans for a largescale, amphibious military operation in the Mediterranean Sea that would ferry food and other aid to desperate civilians in the enclave.
US officials sketched out the plan, which would make the United States more directly involved in delivering aid, hours before President Biden was scheduled to give his State of the Union address Thursday evening. Details for what they described as a floating pier off Gaza would be included in the speech, the officials said.
The White House called it an “emergency mission” that would allow hundreds of truckloads of additional aid to be delivered to Gaza via the temporary port, which would be attached to some kind of temporary causeway.
Briefing reporters, officials said it could take more than 30 to 60 days to implement and involve hundreds or thousands of US troops on ships just off shore, in keeping with Biden’s mandate that no American soldiers be on the ground inside Gaza as the conflict rages. The port would be constructed in cooperation with other countries in the region, the officials said.
American officials said that they had “worked closely” with Israelis as they developed the seaport initiative, but they did not specify whether Israel would provide direct assistance or support for its construction or operation.
Shani Sasson, a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli agency that regulates aid to Palestinians in Gaza, did not respond to a request for comment. One Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations, said that under the latest plan, aid donated by the United Arab Emirates would be sent to Cyprus, where it would eventually be inspected, then transported by ship to the coast of Gaza.
The new facility could provide another way to get truckloads of aid into the region. But it would not solve a central problem of distributing aid inside Gaza while intense fighting and Israeli bombing continues in the south and as lawlessness in the north has grown so bad that aid groups suspended operations there.
Until now, the United States has pressured Israel to allow more aid into Gaza through two border crossings and recently joined France and Jordan in airdropping aid from planes, including 38,000 meals Thursday.
The number of trucks entering Gaza with food and other aid rose in early March compared with February, according to data from the United Nations. But the flow is still far lower than it was before the conflict between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7.
The new project gives Biden a concrete program to point to at a time when he is under sharp criticism for not reining in Israel’s attacks and for moving too slowly to address the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.
And while US officials have engaged in extensive, multinational talks seeking a temporary cease-fire, hopes for an imminent truce after five months of war further dimmed Thursday when Hamas negotiators left talks in Cairo without a breakthrough.
International mediators have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of some hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, but weeks of indirect negotiations appear to have stalled. Hamas wants Israel to commit to a permanent cease-fire during or after hostage releases, a demand that Israel has rejected.