WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Thursday completed installing a floating pier in the Gaza Strip that officials say is desperately needed in an enclave besieged by seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. Preparations are underway to begin transporting humanitarian aid supplies.
The final vigil comes more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered construction to help Palestinians facing starvation and sets up a complicated handover process. Food and other supplies are not delivered Israel recently captured the key Rafah border crossing in its invasion of the southern city on the Egyptian border.
full Logistics, weather and safety challenges, this sea route is designed to increase the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, but is not seen as an alternative to much cheaper land transport, which aid agencies argue is much more sustainable. The aid supplies loaded onto the boats were deposited at a port facility constructed by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City, and then distributed by aid organizations.
Fierce fighting breaks out between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the suburbs Rapha About 600,000 people, a quarter of the population of Gaza, have been evacuated, UN officials said. Another 100,000 civilians have been evacuated from parts of northern Gaza as Israeli forces resume combat operations there.
Pentagon officials said the fighting in Gaza does not threaten new coastline aid distribution areas, but the security situation will be closely monitored and closures of maritime routes, even temporarily, will be implemented. It was revealed that there is a possibility of encouraging The site has already been targeted by mortar fire during construction, and Hamas has threatened to attack foreign forces that “occupy” the Gaza Strip.
“Protecting participating U.S. forces is a top priority. Therefore, in the past few weeks, the United States and Israel developed an integrated security plan to protect all personnel,” said U.S. Army Central Command Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said. “We are confident that this security arrangement will protect those involved.”
U.S. Central Command announced that U.S. forces had anchored at the pier at 7:40 a.m. local time on Thursday, stressing that U.S. forces have not entered the Gaza Strip and will not enter during the pier operation.
“Trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies are expected to begin disembarking within the next few days,” the command said. “The United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution to Gaza.”
It was not immediately clear which U.N. agencies would be involved.
The Israeli military is responsible for guarding the coast, but two U.S. Navy warships, the aircraft carrier Arleigh Burke and the aircraft carrier Paul Ignatius, are also stationed near the eastern Mediterranean. Both ships are destroyers with a wide range of weapons and capabilities to protect U.S. forces offshore and allies on the coast.
Aid agencies say hospitals will be forced to suspend critical operations as food is scarce and fuel is running low in southern Gaza. Stop truck deliveries of aid supplies. The United Nations and others have warned for weeks that Israel’s attack on Rafah would disrupt humanitarian operations and cause a catastrophic rise in civilian casualties.
is more than 1.4 million Palestinians – half of Gaza’s population Most have taken refuge in Rafah, fleeing Israeli attacks.
The first cargo ship, carrying 475 pallets of food, left Cyprus last week and joined the USS Roy P. Benavidez off the coast of Gaza. Pallets of relief supplies aboard the MV Sagamore were transferred to the Benavidez. The Pentagon said moving aid between ships is an effort to prepare for rapid flow once piers and causeways are in place.
Installation of the pier, located several miles (kilometers) offshore, and the embankment that is currently anchored to the shore, was delayed by nearly two weeks due to bad weather. U.S. officials say sea conditions make it too dangerous for U.S. and Israeli forces to secure a causeway to the coast.
Military leaders said aid would begin gradually to ensure the system’s functionality. Initially, around 90 truckloads of aid will be delivered per day via sea routes, with the number expected to soon increase to around 150 per day. But aid agencies say this alone is not enough to avert impending famine in the Gaza Strip and is only part of a broader Israeli effort to open a land corridor.
The U.S.-built pier-to-sea route is “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist” because all needed aid can be transported by land crossing if Israeli authorities allow it, said Scott, deputy director of the Oxfam humanitarian organization.・Mr. Paul said. organization.
Biden is his state of the union address On March 7, it ordered the military to set up a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza and establish a shipping route for food and other aid. Land transport of food has resumed amid Israeli restrictions and intensifying fighting.
Under the new route, humanitarian supplies will be offloaded to Cyprus and will undergo inspection and security checks at the port of Larnaca. The items are then loaded onto ships (mainly commercial vessels) and transported approximately 320 kilometers to a large floating pier built by the US military off the coast of Gaza.
There, the pallets are transferred to trucks, loaded onto small army boats, and shuttled several miles (kilometers) back and forth to a floating causeway anchored by the Israeli military to the coast. The track she is on is Driven by an employee from another countrydescend the causeway into a safe area on land, drop off the aid there, and quickly turn around and return to the boat.
Aid groups will collect supplies for distribution on the coast, and the United Nations will work with the U.S. Agency for International Development to set up distribution hubs on the coast.
Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters: The project will cost at least $320 million.This includes transportation of equipment and pier sections from the United States to the Gaza coast, as well as construction and aid delivery operations.
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Associated Press writer John Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
