Bipartisan group of 55 US lawmakers urge deployment of hospital ships for wounded Gazans

By Jacob Magid

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1 December 2023, 5:36 pm

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Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Illustrative: The USNS Comfort, a naval hospital ship with a 1,000 bed-capacity, pulls up the Hudson River, Monday, March 30, 2020, before arriving at Pier 90 in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

A bipartisan group of 55 Congress members have penned a letter to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urging him to deploy a pair of hospital ships that are in the US army’s possession in order to treat wounded civilians from Gaza.

The letter is organized by Democratic Reo. Brad Schneider and Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt.

It calls for the ships to be deployed to “the waters off Gaza,” though this is not likely due to the damage sustained by Gaza’s port in Israeli airstrikes. Moreover, the Gaza port isn’t suited for the docking of such large ships.

Accordingly, countries that have announced plans to send hospital ships are deploying them to Egypt in order to dock off the El Arish coast. A floating hospital from France arrived there earlier this week.

Israel has been pushing for field hospitals and other alternatives to the existing medical centers in Gaza, saying that Hamas is operating command centers beneath them.