The Pentagon says it plans to re-anchor a temporary pier to the Gaza coast that the U.S. military built to deliver aid to civilians, after detaching it late last month because of rough seas.
“It's tentatively scheduled to be re-anchored this week,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Monday.
The U.S. announced that the floating pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), had been moved to the Israeli port at Ashdod on June 28 to keep it protected from weather damage. At the time, officials said there was a chance that it would not be reattached.
More than 8,800 metric tons of aid have been brought into Gaza since pier operations began, according to the U.S. The pier allowed aid to enter Gaza via a sea route from Cyprus, a delivery method that officials deemed a “temporary” fix as land routes to get aid into Gaza stalled, with long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points.
The arrangement was part of an effort to boost what humanitarian organizations said was a vastly insufficient amount of aid for Palestinian civilians.
Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, had prevented the aid from leaving the Gaza beach and making it to civilians in need, but Ryder said the World Food Program had been able to distribute a “significant amount of that aid” to its warehouses in recent days.
Once reattached, the pier could be used to deliver additional aid still in Cyprus to the Gaza beach, Ryder told reporters.
The late-June pier detachment was not the first time the temporary pier had been taken offline because of rough seas.
Following its completion in mid-May, the pier operated for just a few days before it was damaged by stormy weather in late May. That damage stopped operations until June 8.
U.S. Central Command again detached the pier in late June to prevent expected rough seas from causing fresh damage to it.
