U.S. will build temporary Gaza port for aid amid reports of child famine deaths

The United States military will construct a temporary port and pier on the coastline of Gaza to provide a new route for providing humanitarian aid to desperate civilians there, senior administration officials said.

Officials described the plan as part of President Joe Biden's orders to “flood the zone” with assistance arriving by air, land and sea.

Officials said that the port will include a temporary pier to offload aid that routed through Larnaca, in Cyprus, where it will undergo prior inspection by Israel. “The concept that's been planned involves the presence of U.S. military personnel on military vessels offshore” from Gaza, “but does not require U.S. military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or causeway facility” or offload the aid, said one of three senior officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House.

Aid will be distributed inside Gaza by United Nations and other humanitarian personnel, the officials said. Humanitarian officials have said that famine conditions are present in northern Gaza, where more than a dozen children have died, and is threatened in the south.

Ship transport of aid, expected to begin within the next several weeks, will supplement airdrops by the United States and other countries. U.S. military planes conducted their third airdrop on Thursday and officials said there are more to come. They also said Israel has agreed to open a third border crossing for delivery of trucked food and medicine to northern Gaza, and to “facilitate” ongoing shipments by truck from Jordan to the southern part of the enclave.

“We have and we will continue to press Israel to allow more aid into Gaza by land,” one of the officials said. “We have long believed that land routes can be the most efficient, cost-effective way to get assistance in. But we have decided — and the president has directed — that we look at all options, that we not wait for the Israelis and that we are pursuing every channel possible.”

The officials emphasized that delivery of aid would be eased by finalization of a temporary ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas.