Hundreds of Army soldiers deployed Tuesday from Virginia to the Gaza coast, where they will join Marines and Navy sailors in constructing a floating pier off the coast of Gaza. The pier is expected to create a desperately needed route for humanitarian aid promised by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Officials describe the pier as a massive floating surface that will attach to a walkway which will attach to shore. However, it will take at least two months before the pier is functional and operating. Once built, the pier should enable deliveries of some 2 million meals a day to the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
The United Nations has warned that famine is “almost inevitable” without urgent action.
According to the Pentagon, the plan includes two main components which need to be assembled – a big floating dock made up of steel segments and a two-lane, 1,800ft (548m) causeway and pier.
The project – officially known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS – has been used before by the U.S. military in Kuwait, Somalia, Haiti and Central America for disaster relief missions.
According to a BBC report, more than 1,000 U.S. troops are expected to participate in the operation although the Pentagon says there will be no “boots on the ground.” To achieve this, the U.S. has partnered with Fogbow, a private firm run by former military and intelligence officials.
A ship carrying aid is approaching Gaza about 48 hours after it left Cyprus, with further aid preparations being made aboard a second larger vessel. After the 240-mile voyage, the ship will dock at a jetty being built by the World Central Kitchen (WCK), the organization that will distribute the aid. The ship is towing a barge carrying 200 tons of food which equates to almost half a million meals.
Cyprus’ foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said on Wednesday evening a second “much bigger” vessel was on standby in the port of Larnaca to ship more aid to Gaza.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, decried the lack of aid reaching Gaza. “We are now facing a population fighting for their own survival,” he told the UN security council in New York on Tuesday. “Humanitarian assistance needs to get into Gaza, and the European Union is working as much as we can in order to make it possible.”
Biden has promised no U.S. boots on the ground, and officials say they will be working with Israeli forces and other partners in the region to secure the pier’s causeway to the shore, as well as offload and distribute the aid packages.
In reality, while there may be no U.S. troops actively working on Gaza soil, there will be a need for U.S. military officials and contractors to be present in the area to install the pier and coordinate aid distribution with the IDF and unarmed Palestinians.
According to the US defense department, the pier will allow for far more aid than is currently coming in over land through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, or through airdrops.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said recently the maritime option was being explored because other options are insufficient. But he said there is no substitute for assistance coming in trucks over land, so they would continue to push for that.
According to a post on X by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), “U.S. Army Vessels (USAV SP4 James A. Loux (LSV-6), USAV Monterrey (LCU30), USAV Matamoros (LCU26), and USAV Wilson Warf (LCU11) from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps, departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis en route to the Eastern Mediterranean to establish a roll-on, roll-off dock capability that allows ship to shore humanitarian assistance to Gaza. SP4 James A. Loux, Monterrey, Matamoros, and Wilson Warf are carrying equipment and supplies needed to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies.”
World Central Kitchen also posted an update on X, saying, “WCK-provided aid has set sail for Gaza on the @openarms_fund boat. We dispatched almost 200 tons of food—rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies & proteins. Alongside the @UAEAid & @CyprusMFA, our Relief Team is working to send as many aid boats as possible. #ChefsForThePeople”.
Amid such desperation on the Palestinian side and much U.S. and European exasperation over the difficulties involved, the larger question is whether Western countries can provide Palestinians with much-needed aid while preventing Hamas terrorists from commandeering the aid and stealing it from hungry civilians.
A combination of aid delivered by sea, air, and land should mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe and provide some relief to Palestinian civilians while preventing Hamas terrorists from taking aid intended for Gaza’s men, women, and children.