Aid deliveries in Gaza suspended after US-built pier damaged

Deliveries of much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza via a U.S.-built temporary pier have been suspended after the pier was damaged by rough seas. On Tuesday, May 28, a Pentagon spokesperson announced this latest setback to the $320 million pier, which has only been fully operational for less than two weeks, on Tuesday, May 28. 

“Unfortunately, we had a perfect storm of high sea states and then, as I mentioned, this north African weather system also came in at the same time creating not an optimal environment to operate this JLOTS [Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore capability], this temporary pier,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh explained. 

Army engineers are working to put the pier back together, and Singh said Defense Department officials are hopeful it “will be fully operational in just a little over a week”. 

Over the weekend, U.S. Central Command said four small U.S. military boats ferrying aid broke from their moorings in bad weather. Two of them washed up on the coast of southern Israel near the city of Ashdod, while the other two beached in Gaza. 

Deliveries were also halted for two days last week after crowds rushed aid trucks coming from the pier and a Palestinian man was shot dead. The U.S. military worked with the U.N. and Israeli officials to find safer alternate routes for trucks, the Pentagon said Friday, May 24. 

The pier’s temporary closure comes at a particularly rough time for Gaza as Israeli forces have ramped up attacks in their ground invasion on Rafah. On Sunday, May 26, a deadly airstrike killed dozens of people there, including children, and left hundreds more injured.

Before the weather damage and suspension, Singh said the pier was able to get 1,000 metric tons of aid into Gaza. However, U.S. officials have repeatedly emphasized the pier cannot provide the amount of aid starving Gazans need and stressed more checkpoints for humanitarian trucks need to be opened. 

At full operating capacity, the pier is supposed to be able to deliver up to 150 trucks’ worth of aid every day, which can feed about 500,000 people, the Pentagon said. U.S. officials said land crossings need to be opened to bring aid for the remaining 1.8 million people in Gaza.