Israel to set up port facility to replace US pier, build field hospital for Gaza kids

Defense minister announces plans without giving timeline; Gazan authorities say wastewater pumping stations have stopped working because of fuel shortages in Deir al-Balah

A US Army vessel is seen moored at the US-built floating pier Trident that connected to the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A US Army vessel is seen moored at the US-built floating pier Trident that connected to the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israel will soon replace the United States military’s offshore pier for delivering aid to the Gaza Strip with a dedicated facility in a southern Israeli port, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday, days after the Biden administration announced that the floating platform would soon be shut down.

Gallant said that “Pier 28” would be established in Israel’s Ashdod port to help deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, without specifying a timeline.

Aid coming in through that pier will still need to go in through Israeli land crossings.

The American temporary pier, located off Gaza’s coast, has been beset by ongoing weather and security problems since it was installed in May. The US has said it is winding down the project, although officials maintain it has been a success in delivering badly needed food aid to the territory.

Gallant announced the decision after a meeting with US Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of Central Command.

“The minister emphasized the defense establishment’s commitment to working with international partners to ensure the entry of critical humanitarian aid to Gaza,” his office said.

The United Nations has long said maritime deliveries were no substitute for land access. It said land routes needed to remain the focus of aid operations in the enclave, where a global hunger monitor last month said there is a high risk of famine, although it concluded that similar warnings issued earlier in the war had proven to be incorrect.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sit waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. (Giuseppe CACACE / AFP)

Gallant’s office also said he had ordered the establishment of a field hospital in Israel to treat Palestinian children who are unable to leave Gaza for medical care abroad.

It was not immediately clear which body would be running the hospital, and whether it would be Israeli or otherwise.

It said the decision was made because of the extended closure of Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt. The crossing has been closed since Israeli forces captured it in early May. Egypt has refused to reopen the crossing while the Gazan side remains under Israeli control.

“This is a significant short-term solution that will address immediate humanitarian needs until a permanent mechanism is established to evacuate and treat ill children,” Gallant’s office said, again without providing a timeline.

Internally displaced children play in a burnt out vehicle in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on July 15, 2024 (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Meanwhile, Hamas-run local authorities in one of Gaza’s main cities said on Wednesday that wastewater pumping stations had stopped working because fuel had run out, expressing fears that disease could rapidly spread.

Tens of thousands of people displaced by the Israel-Hamas war have sought shelter in Deir al-Balah, and city authorities said more than 700,000 people could be at risk from a “health and environmental crisis.” The war sparked by the devastating October 7 Hamas assault on Israel.

“Deir al-Balah municipality announces the halt of water waste pumping stations because stocks of fuel necessary for their functioning are exhausted,” said a city statement.

It predicted that “roads will be flooded by wastewater” and “diseases will spread.”

The fuel-powered waste plants treat water that is then put into the Mediterranean.

Palestinians walk with water and food through a heavily damaged residential district of the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Younis, July 5, 2024. (Bashar Taleb / AFP)

“Nineteen pits and two large reservoirs are unusable in Deir al-Balah,” Ismail Sarsour, an official with the city’s emergency committee, said ahead of the release of the statement, adding that the stations handle wastewater for more than 140 points of shelter where tens of thousands of people have taken refuge.

The Palestinian Authority’s water department, the PWA, which is based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said recently it had arranged for tens of thousands of liters of fuel to enter Gaza.

Israel said this month that, with help from the UN children’s agency UNICEF, it had connected one desalination plant in southern Gaza to its electricity network. It was unclear if the plant had started working.

Palestinians conduct electric works in the Gaza Strip to increase power to a water desalination plant in coordination with Israel, July 2, 2024 (Screenshot: X)

The Palestinian Authority also said that it expected electricity supplies to start again in central Gaza in the “coming days” to power public infrastructure. Israeli authorities have not confirmed the move.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Most Popular
read more: