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The US military has completed the installation of a floating pier for the Gaza Strip, with officials poised to begin ferrying much-needed humanitarian aid to the enclave, besieged by seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.
The final construction overnight on Thursday sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to arrive as Israel has recently confiscated key border crossing Rafah in his push against this southern city on the Egyptian border.
Riddled with logistical, meteorological and security challenges, the sea route is designed to increase the amount of aid reaching the Gaza Strip, but is not considered a substitute for much cheaper ground deliveries, which aid agencies say are much more efficient. sustainable.
The aid boats will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.
US troops will not enter Gaza, North America officials insist, even as they acknowledge the danger of operating near a war zone.
Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of Rafah has displaced some 600,000 people, a quarter of Gaza’s population, UN officials say.
Another 100,000 civilians have fled parts of northern Gaza after the Israeli army resumed combat operations there.
Pentagon officials said the fighting in Gaza did not threaten the new coastal aid distribution zone, but they made it clear that security conditions would be closely monitored and could cause the sea route to be halted, if only temporarily.
The site has already come under mortar fire during its construction, and Hamas has threatened to attack any foreign forces that “occupy” the Gaza Strip.
“(The protection of) participating U.S. forces is a top priority. And as such, over the past several weeks, the United States and Israel have developed an integrated security plan to protect all operating personnel,” said Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander at U.S. Army Central Command.
“We are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved.”
US troops docked at the pier at 7.40am local time on Thursday, the army’s central command said in a statement, stressing that none of its forces had entered the Gaza Strip.
“Trucks carrying humanitarian aid are expected to start moving ashore in the coming days,” the statement said. “The United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution in Gaza.”
It was not immediately clear which UN agency would be involved.
Israeli forces will be responsible for shore security, but there are also two US Navy warships near the area in the eastern Mediterranean, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius.
Both ships are destroyers equipped with a wide array of weapons and capabilities to protect US troops at sea and allies ashore.
Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza and running low on fuel, which will force hospitals to halt critical operations and halt aid deliveries by truck.
The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israeli assault on Rafah, which is on the Egyptian border near major aid entry points, would paralyze humanitarian operations and cause a catastrophic spike in civilian casualties.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians, half of Gaza’s population, have taken refuge in Rafah, most after fleeing Israeli offensives elsewhere.
The first cargo ship, loaded with 475 pallets of food, left Cyprus last week to rendezvous with the US warship Roy P. Benavidez, which is off the coast of Gaza.
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