The United States’ floating aid pier off the coast of Gaza, plagued by problems since its inception, will be dismantled again due to bad weather, the Pentagon said.
The pier will be towed back to Israel in anticipation of high seas this weekend, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said at a briefing on Friday. It is the second time that the pier, which cost approximately $230 million, has been dismantled in the six weeks since it was built.
The flow of aid into Gaza has grounded to a near-total halt, with relief agencies blaming Israel for delaying and denying deliveries. U.S. Central Command said it has helped facilitate the delivery of more than 8,800 tons of aid through the maritime corridor since mid-May; before the war, an average of 7,500 tons of goods were delivered to Gaza on a working day, The Washington Post estimated. Earlier this week, NBC News reported that the vast majority of aid delivered to the pier has not yet been distributed within Gaza due to the risks posed to the aid groups by the fighting.
Announced by President Joe Biden in March, the pier was meant to be a stopgap measure to facilitate the movement of humanitarian aid to a starving population that has been besieged by Israeli attacks for more than eight months.
But the project has proved to be expensive and inefficient, compared to land routes for bringing in aid. Just one week after it began receiving aid on May 17, heavy seas damaged the structure, injuring three U.S. service members. On the day deliveries from the pier resumed, the Israeli military launched a deadly hostage rescue during which Israeli helicopters were near the U.S. floating pier. (The Pentagon denied allegations that the structure was used in the rescue operation.) The United Nations, which had been distributing aid from the pier into Gaza, suspended deliveries the next day, citing security concerns for its staff. The pier was then removed due to bad weather in mid-June, reinstalled days later, and is now being dismantled once again.
The Associated Press reported that, according to unnamed U.S. officials, the U.S. is considering not reinstalling the structure unless distribution of aid into Gaza resumes, but that no final decision has been made. The U.N. has paused distribution from the pier because of security concerns.
The Biden administration nevertheless insisted the pier has been “a great success,” as Singh told reporters Friday. She praised the U.S. military’s “really heroic work to get aid to the people that need it most.” When pressed on how much aid has actually reached people in Gaza, she said it was out of the U.S. government’s hands and deferred the question to relief agencies.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, said at a briefing on Friday that “access constraints — coupled with insecurity and ongoing hostilities — continue to significantly impede the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and services across Gaza.” Asked about the pier, the U.N. spokesperson said, “No, I have nothing to share with you at this point on the pier.”