US military ends operation of Gaza aid pier, will shift efforts to Ashdod port
CENTCOM insists operation was a success, saying pier facilitated transfer of 20 million pounds of aid to enclave, 5 million pounds will make way to Ashdod in coming days
WASHINGTON — The US military announced on Wednesday that its mission to install and operate a temporary, floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, formally ending an extraordinary but troubled effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The pier, announced by US President Joe Biden during a televised address to Congress in March, was a massive endeavor that took about 1,000 US forces to execute. Aid began flowing via the pier to Gaza in May, an operation aimed at bringing food into the Strip.
The pier has been beset by ongoing weather and security problems since it was installed. US officials maintain it has been a success in delivering badly needed food aid to the territory.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
Cooper said efforts to distribute aid to Gaza arriving by sea would now shift to the port of Ashdod in Israel. At least 5 million pounds (2.3 million kilograms) of aid, which are either in Cyprus or on ships, will be going to Ashdod in the coming days, he said.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” Cooper said, adding that nearly 20 million pounds (9 million kilograms) of aid was delivered to Gaza.
The pier became a sore point in Congress, where Republicans branded it a political stunt by Biden, who was under pressure from fellow Democrats to do more to aid Palestinians after months of staunchly supporting Israel’s war on Hamas. The war began after the terror group led a shock invasion of southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of great brutality.
“This chapter might be over in President Biden’s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not. The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
Cooper said he expected the pier, which was authorized to be used until the end of July, to cost less than the $230 million the Pentagon had expected it to cost.
Cooper said the United States had so far delivered more than 1 million pounds of aid through Ashdod and he was confident more could be delivered through that port.
“We look forward to millions more pounds of aid going through that pathway,” he said.
While the pier brought in aid to a marshaling area on Gaza’s shore, the 1,200-foot-long (370-meter-long) floating pier had to be removed multiple times because of bad weather.
The pier has not been used since June, when it was moved to Ashdod port because of rough seas. It was unclear if the US military had started dismantling the pier at Ashdod before its expected return to the United States.
The UN World Food Programme paused operations at the pier in June because of security concerns, causing aid to pile up on the Gaza shore.
The pause came after the Israeli military used an area near the pier to fly out hostages rescued from Hamas captivity — an operation that 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.
