US confirms Gaza pier to be shut down after unsuccessful attempt to reanchor it
Head of US agency for global humanitarian assistance says Israel’s port of Ashdod is now likely to play larger role in delivering aid to war-torn Palestinian enclave
WASHINGTON — The US military’s humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza, which has been hampered by bad weather and aid distribution problems, will shut down soon, President Joe Biden’s administration said on Thursday, as officials estimated that aid would begin flowing through Israel’s port of Ashdod, instead.
Biden announced the plans to put the pier in place back in March, in an effort to assist in delivering aid to the 2.3 million residents of the war-torn Gaza Strip.
While the pier has brought in 8,100 metric tons of aid to a marshaling area on Gaza’s shore since it started operating in May, the 1,200-foot-long (370-metre-long) floating pier has had to be removed multiple times because of bad weather.
Rough seas damaged the pier just days into its initial operations, forcing the military to remove it temporarily for repairs and then reinstall it, and it was again removed on June 29 due to to heavy seas, and was not reattached after that point.
Much of the aid has not reached hungry Gazans after the UN World Food Programme paused operations in June because of security concerns amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said the military unsuccessfully tried to re-anchor the pier on Wednesday.
There was no new date for a re-anchoring, but the effort would soon end.
“The pier has always been intended as a temporary solution to enable the additional flow of aid into Gaza during a period of dire humanitarian need … the pier will soon cease operations,” Ryder said.
Speaking at a press conference at the end of the NATO Summit in Washington on Thursday, Biden acknowledged that the temporary pier fell flat of expectations.
“I’ve been disappointed that some of the things that I’ve put forward have not succeeded as well, like the port we attached from Cyprus. I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said.
US officials have told Reuters that the pier operations could shift to the Israeli port of Ashdod as soon as next week when aid meant for the pier in Cyprus could dry up.
The claim was backed up by the head of the US agency overseeing American humanitarian assistance worldwide, who said on Thursday that Israel has pledged to allow aid workers to move more quickly and safely throughout the Gaza Strip.
Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, told the Associated Press that Israel has been taking new steps to increase the flow of aid through the port of Ashdod, giving donors a new option for delivering aid even as the pier is shuttered.
Until now, Power said, the US has not “seen the kind of humanitarian system to this point that has allowed humanitarians to move efficiently and safely to the degree that we need.
“This week and through this visit, we have secured an agreement,” she added.
The talks with Israeli officials focused heavily on improving the system by which humanitarian groups and the military coordinate safe passage, Power said.
She said that for deliveries by the pier, a system was set up where the Israeli and US militaries and the UN could communicate more closely and immediately over the location of humanitarian workers. As the pier is being shuttered, the Israeli government has now agreed to extend the system across Gaza, she said.
She said the Israeli government had now agreed to extend that system across Gaza.
“Having a system lined up where those aid workers can convey their coordinates, their movements to the (Israeli army), and know that they are going to be safe in making those deliveries, that has not been an assurance that they have had throughout this conflict,” she said.
Power spoke after touring the Ashdod port, which sits about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaza.
She said Israel is increasing its scanning capacity at the port to inspect goods bound for Gaza, which can then be delivered by truck through nearby Israeli crossings. She explained that she expected Ashdod to play a bigger role in aid deliveries once the US-operated pier has been shut down for good.
“I think there will be a maritime part of the humanitarian solution over time that will get bigger and bigger,” she said. “It will probably flow through this port.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday that the pier had helped bring urgently needed food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, but there were now additional supplies entering the Palestinian enclave via land routes.
“The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza. It’s about getting aid around Gaza effectively,” he said, citing lawlessness, armed gangs and in some cases, the Hamas terrorist group trying to disrupt aid distribution.
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.
“We welcomed the pier as an additional resource while it worked. We will keep pushing for what we actually need, which is large-scale road transfer of aid into Gaza,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The UN, which has the widest reach in delivering aid to Palestinians, had been overseeing the transportation of aid from the pier to WFP warehouses. But it ceased distributing food and other emergency supplies arriving through the pier on June 8 and never resumed.
The pause came after the Israeli military used an area near the pier to fly out hostages after an operation to rescue four hostages from Hamas captivity sparked deadly fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, prompting a UN security review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have compromised. The US has denied the pier was used in the rescue mission.
Late last month, WFP said it had arranged for commercial operators to instead start clearing aid that has accumulated at the pier to avoid spoilage.
The US military estimates the pier will cost roughly $230 million in total and involve about 1,000 service members.
Separately on Thursday, the Senate narrowly voted to block legislation introduced by Republican Senator Ted Cruz that would have cut off funding for the pier.
Jacob Magid and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
