Project to build pier in Gaza Strip completed – US military

The US military put in a floating pier for Gaza Strip on Thursday. They will start to bring in supplies to help the people there. Gaza has been in a lot of fighting for seven months.

Last night, the construction was finished to make a plan for getting supplies to Palestinians who are hungry. This plan was made more than two months ago by US President Joe Biden. But it’s been hard to send the supplies because Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing, where the supplies would go through.

The maritime route has a lot of difficulties with getting aid into Gaza like logistics, weather and security. It’s meant to help get more aid into Gaza, but it’s not as cheap or sustainable as delivering aid by land. The aid will be taken to a port made by the Israelis near Gaza City. Then, aid groups will give it out to the people.

Violent fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in Rafah has forced about 600,000 people to leave their homes. This is about a quarter of the population of Gaza, according to the UN. An additional 100,000 people have left some areas in northern Gaza because the Israeli military has started fighting there again.

Pentagon officials said that the fighting in Gaza isn’t a problem for the new aid distribution area on the shore. But they also said that they will keep a close eye on the security situation and might have to temporarily stop the aid shipments by sea. The site was attacked with mortar fire while it was being built. Hamas has said they will attack any foreign forces that stay in the Gaza Strip.

Protecting the US military is very important. “In the past few weeks, the United States and Israel made a plan to protect all their people by working together,” said Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper is a leader in the US military’s Central Command. “We believe the security plan can keep everyone safe. ”

US soldiers arrived and stopped at the pier at 7:40 am on Thursday. They didn’t go into the Gaza Strip and won’t while they are at the pier.

“The trucks with help for people are going to start unloading in a few days,” the command said. “The United Nations will get help and make sure it goes to the people in Gaza. ”

The World Food Program will be the program of the United Nations that helps give aid to people, officials said.

Israel will be responsible for keeping the shore safe, and there are also two American warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius. Both ships are powerful warships with many different weapons and abilities. They are used to keep American soldiers safe at sea and help their allies on the land.

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani from the Israeli military said that a pier has been built and the ground has been made flat and roads have been made for trucks by the Israeli engineering units.

“We have been helping the US military with this project for months, doing everything we can to support and assist them,” Shoshani said. “It’s very important in what we do. ”

Aid organizations say they are running out of food and fuel in southern Gaza. This will make it hard for hospitals to keep running and for aid trucks to deliver supplies. The UN and others have been saying for weeks that if Israel attacks Rafah, it will make it really hard for aid workers to help people and there will be a lot of innocent people getting hurt.

Over 1.4 million Palestinians, which is half of the people in Gaza, are staying in Rafah because they ran away from Israel’s attacks in other places.

Last week, a big ship filled with 475 crates of food left Cyprus to meet a US military ship, the Roy P Benavidez, near Gaza. The supplies on the MV Sagamore were transferred onto the Benavidez. The Pentagon said that transferring the aid between ships was a way to prepare so that it could be delivered quickly once the pier and causeway were set up.

The pier and causeway were supposed to be put in place, but bad weather caused a two-week delay. The rough sea made it too risky for US and Israeli soldiers to protect the path to the shore, according to US officials.

Military leaders have stated that aid will be given out little by little at first to make sure everything goes smoothly. They will begin by sending about 90 truckloads of help every day by sea, and soon that will go up to about 150 a day. But organizations that help people say that sending food alone will not stop a severe hunger crisis in Gaza. Israel needs to do more to open up routes for supplies to reach the people in need.

Israeli officials are not letting aid come through land crossings, so the US-built pier and sea route is not needed, according to Scott Paul from Oxfam.

Biden told the military to make a pier near Gaza so they can bring food and help by sea. Food deliveries are stuck at border crossings because of Israeli restrictions and increasing fighting.

The new sea route will bring humanitarian aid to Cyprus. When it arrives at Larnaca port, the aid will be checked for safety. It is put on ships, usually commercial ones, and taken about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to a big pier in the ocean that the US military built near Gaza.

There are pallets there.