Biden’s plan to build a relief port in Gaza could provide 2 million meals a day
The Biden administration’s floating pier and humanitarian causeway, when completed, could deliver as many as two million meals a day to Gaza residents, but the project will take at least a month and perhaps two months to complete, the Pentagon said Friday. .
Details for the pier and causeways plan, President Biden’s latest idea to sidestep Israel’s blockage of aid deliveries through all but two land border crossings, were outlined by the country’s press secretary at a press conference on Friday. Pentagon, Major General Pat Ryder.
Aid groups have welcomed the plan, which was announced on Thursday, days after the US military began dropping supplies into Gaza. But aid workers say the maritime project is not ambitious enough to alleviate the humanitarian disaster unfolding as Israel continues to bomb the Gaza Strip.
General Ryder said one of the key military units involved in the construction of the floating pier for Gaza would be the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), based out of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, near Norfolk. About a thousand U.S. military personnel will work to complete the pier and causeway, he said.
The floating pier, General Ryder said, would be built and assembled next to an army ship off the coast of Gaza. Army ships are large, bulky ships, so they will need armed escorts, especially if they come within range of the Gaza coast, Defense Ministry officials said, and officials are working to ensure their protection while the pier is built .
Describing the project, a US military official said that normally a large ship would be moored off the coast of the desired location, and that a “Roll-on-Roll-off Discharge Facility” – a large floating dock – would be required. would be built next to the nave that serves as a waiting area. When cargo or equipment is wheeled or placed onto the floating dock, it can then be loaded onto smaller Navy boats and moved to a temporary causeway anchored to land.
On Thursday, Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, welcomed Biden’s announcement.
But speaking to reporters after briefing the UN Security Council, she added: “At the same time, I cannot but repeat: air and sea are not a substitute for land and no one is saying otherwise.”
Since Israel began its bombing and invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas-led attack, only two land border crossings into the territory have been opened: one in Rafah, a Gaza city on the southern border with Egypt, and one in Kerem Shalom, on the border with Israel.
Aid workers have described bottlenecks for aid at border crossings due to lengthy truck inspections, limited crossing times and protests by Israelis, and they have also noted the difficulty of distributing aid within Gaza. Israeli officials have denied impeding the flow of aid, saying the United Nations and aid groups are responsible for any backlogs.
On Friday, General Ryder said U.S. officials were “working with allies and partner countries,” as well as the United Nations and aid groups, to coordinate security and aid distribution from the floating pier and causeway. He emphasized that “there will be no American troops on the ground in Gaza.”
He also acknowledged that neither the air drops nor the floating pier were as effective as sending aid overland.
“We want to see a significant increase in the amount of aid coming through land,” General Ryder said. “We understand this is the most viable way to get help.”
But he added: “We’re not going to wait.”