GOP lawmaker demands Biden administration close Gaza aid pier

WASHINGTON — The Republican lawmaker who leads the House Armed Services Committee has written to the Biden administration formally demanding it shut down its aid pier off the coast of Gaza, calling the operation ineffective, risky, and a waste of money.

“I urge the Administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers writes in a letter seen by Reuters.

The letter, sent to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has not been previously reported.

Rogers has long opposed the pier and has called in the past for it to be dismantled, but he had not previously expressed that view in a formal written letter to the administration.

His armed services committee is the Pentagon’s top oversight body in the House of Representatives, and formal requests from its chairman traditionally require a response from Pentagon officials.

“As of June 19, JLOTS had only been operational about 10 days and had only moved 3,415 metric tons onto the beach in Gaza,” Rogers writes, using the U.S. military’s acronym for the pier system, known as Joint Logistics Over the Shore.

According to US military data, as of Tuesday, 8,332 pallets had been delivered via the pier. But around 84 percent of them have been sitting on Gaza’s coast in a marshaling area waiting to be picked up by the United Nations for distribution.

The World Food Programme paused deliveries earlier this month over security concerns.

Reuters was given rare access to the US military-run pier off Gaza on Tuesday and saw aid pallets being moved from a vessel onto the 1,200-foot (370-meter)-long pier as it bobbed around with the incoming waves. The pallets were then taken by trucks to the coast.

The operation is complex, involving about 1,000 US military personnel. The Pentagon estimates the first 90 days of operation will cost about $230 million.

Rogers also notes that three US servicemembers suffered non-combat injuries while deployed on the operation.

“I urge the Administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery,” Rogers writes.