US reveals plan to build Gaza port
Amid dimming hopes that an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage-release deal will be reached before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, American President Joe Biden has ordered the US military to construct a temporary port and pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to open a new route for providing humanitarian aid.
Administration officials described what they called an “emergency mission”, to be announced in Biden’s State of the Union speech, as part of his directive to “flood the zone” with desperately needed assistance arriving by air, land and sea.
The port plan follows last week’s initiation of US military airdrops of aid into Gaza, the third of which took place on Thursday.
The new maritime facility will allow “hundreds” of truckloads of assistance to be delivered daily to Gaza, said one of three senior officials who briefed media on the plan.
The aid will be routed through Cyprus, where the goods will undergo inspection by Israel before being loaded onto what officials said would be “large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters”.
Relations between Washington and Jerusalem have become increasingly strained as Israel’s siege of Gaza has severely limited the amount of humanitarian assistance permitted to enter the enclave.
Millions of civilians inside the war zone are on the verge of famine amid a worsening public health catastrophe, according to humanitarian organizations.
Both at home and abroad, Biden’s attempts to balance unwavering US diplomatic and military support of Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas militants with the increasingly dire situation in Gaza have become increasingly untenable.
“We are not waiting on the Israelis” to facilitate more aid, one senior official said. “This is a moment for American leadership and we are building a coalition of countries to address this urgent need.”
After initial US deliveries by sea, the official said, the hope is that other countries will join in a mission that eventually will include commercial operations.
The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no initial statement on the US announcement.
An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Israel “welcomes and fully supports” the port plans, which have been discussed “and will be carried out with full co-ordination between the two parties.”
Biden has pledged that no US military troops would become involved in the war, and officials said there would be no American boots on the ground in construction of the port facility.