U.S. will soon end its troubled Gaza pier mission, Pentagon says
www.washingtonpost.com
The Pentagon’s floating pier off Gaza, announced by President Biden in March, has been sidelined several times by poor weather and rough seas.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman, said in a statement that U.S. troops tried to reconnect the floating pier to the shoreline Wednesday but were unable to do so because of “technical and weather-related issues.” The pier and its support vessels were taken back to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where they had sheltered amid the latest spell of rough waves, and will remain there until further notice, Ryder said.

…

The operation has delivered nearly 20 million pounds of food ashore since it began on May 17. It’s a fraction of what humanitarian groups say is needed as Palestinians trapped by the fighting between Israel and Hamas face starvation and Israeli officials resist U.S. and international demands to let more aid into Gaza via land routes.

Moreover, distribution from the pier has been challenged by aid groups’ fears for their workers’ safety as the war’s staggering number of civilian casualties continues to climb. Until recently, arriving supplies were left to pile up in a staging area along the beach. A U.S. defense official familiar with the issue, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss recent developments, said a significant amount of that aid has been moved to other locations, leaving room for new deliveries if the pier can get up and running again.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which coordinates with the humanitarian groups working in Gaza, will continue to use all available routes into the territory to get food and medicine to Palestinian civilians in need, an official there said. Those groups have begun using the port at Ashdod, north of Gaza, for additional aid deliveries, the official said.

  • bartolomeo@suppo.fiEnglish
    25·
    4 months ago

    nearly 20 million pounds of food ashore since it began on May 17.

    With a population of around 2 million in Gaza that’s 10 pounds of food per person over some 50 days. About 90 grams of food per person per day. 90 grams is like half an apple.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      16·
      4 months ago

      And at $320M for the pier alone, they squandered $16 per pound on a pier that barely worked.

      However, they did rescue four Israeli hostages by maybe possibly leveraging the same pier they said was being used for aid, when the IDF launched a commando raid that massacred hundreds of Palestinians along the way.

      So who are we to say whether the Pentagon’s pier project wasn’t a success?

      • bartolomeo@suppo.fiEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        Wait so what’s your take on this (from the article)

        Video circulating online Saturday shows an IDF helicopter taking off from the beach with the U.S. pier in the backdrop. Two U.S. officials told CBS News that the U.S. pier was not used in the IDF operation. It is offshore to assist delivery of humanitarian aid. A U.S. official explained that the helicopter landed south of the facility on a beach but not within the cordoned area of the pier.

        “The pier facility was not used in the operation to rescue hostages today in Gaza. An area south of the facility was used to safely return the hostages to Israel,” a U.S. official said. “Any such claim to the contrary is false. The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was put in place for one purpose only, to help get more urgently needed lifesaving assistance into Gaza.”

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      102·
      4 months ago

      For real, they announced that thing and my immediate reaction was “wow, what a flagrantly performative waste of money”. I see that I was spot on.