Unnamed officials said the floating pier and causeway that Washington hopes to use to bring aid into Gaza could be completed by Friday with aid deliveries beginning Saturday. The development comes as the cost of the pier has nearly doubled, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted that the operations will put US soldiers in danger.
One US and European official told POLITICO the pier could be operational by the weekend. The pier and causeway constructed by US troops are designed to bring some aid to the starving people of Gaza. The famine in Gaza has been intentionally provoked by Tel Aviv, with Washington’s full-throated support.
The Pentagon’s plan to deliver aid into Gaza by sea calls for constructing a floating pier and causeway attached to the shore. The aid will be delivered to the pier before being placed on small boats to bring to the causeway. From there, the UN will deliver the aid with Israeli forces providing security.
The project is already costing US taxpayers double the projected amount, $320 million. Over 1,000 troops are involved in the operation. During a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Austin told Rep. Matt Gaetz that it was “possible” that US troops could come under fire. He went on to say that the soldiers may then return fire, significantly escalating US involvement in the Israeli onslaught.
The high price tag and risk to US soldiers come with relatively little reward. The sea route is only expected to be able to deliver 90-150 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day, well below the UN request to see 500 trucks enter the Strip on a daily basis.
Before October 7, over 500 aid trucks per day, plus commercial goods, crossed into the territory. After the Hamas attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that Tel Aviv would collectively punish all Palestinians living in Gaza by denying them food, water, and other life-saving aid.
In addition to the pier being an ineffectual method to deliver aid, Israeli forces have demolished Palestinian homes to make way for the project. The New Humanitarian collected witness statements and satellite images to prove that homes around that staging area for the pier had been demolished.
After nearly seven months of blockade, nearly all 2.3 million Palestinians in the Strip are struggling to find food. Hundreds of thousands are already in famine conditions, and scores have starved to death.
While the pier is ostensibly meant to deliver aid to Palestinians, according to a report from the Jerusalem Post, the idea to build the pier actually came from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A reporter for Israel’s Kan news said last month that, during a meeting of the Knessett’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Netanyahu suggested using the pier to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
