- The pier built by the US military opened just two weeks ago
- It will now be towed to Ashdod, Israel, for repairs
A floating pier put together by the US military and intended to provide aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza suffered damage in rough seas and will have to be towed away for repairs after a part broke off, the Biden administration said on Tuesday.
Just two weeks after opening, the pier’s operations have been temporarily suspended and repairs could take more than a week. President Biden announced the project in March and the White House praised it as accritical instrument to provide relief to the war-torn population.
The Biden administration had billed the pier as at least a temporary solution to reports of mass suffering and famine in Gaza. With an estimated price tag of $320 million, it offers a way to get aid from Cyprus even as Israel resists US pressure to open more land routes for supply deliveries.
Now it will be towed to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod for repairs that could take “at least more than a week,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
The Pentagon blames rough seas for the pier’s problems. U.S. Central Command said the choppy conditions caused four U.S. ships to break away from the pier. Two of them washed up on the shore in Gaza.
A floating pier put together by the US military and intended to provide aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza suffered damage in rough seas and will have to be towed away for repairs after a part broke off, the Biden administration said on Tuesday.
Images from land show the rusted hull of a US military ship that was stranded during efforts to free it. Two other ships are anchored on the beach.
As Singh described it, the Trident Pier, which is anchored to Rafa Beach, must be removed before any work can begin on it.
“Think of that Trident Pier as a big tee. That top part of the tee came loose, so that has been repaired. But to put it all back together, it has to be detached from the shoreline and go to Ashdod to be reassembled and then reattached – re-anchored,” she said.
Singh said the pier handled about 1,000 tons (more than 2,000 pounds) of aid before going offline.
Repairs to the US-built floating pier could take more than a week, and the delivery of aid through the pier to Gaza has been halted. The pier is pictured on May 16
A US military landing craft runs aground in Ashdod on Sunday, May 26, 2024, after being swept away by wind and current from the temporary humanitarian pier in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
“To put it all back together, it will have to be detached from the shoreline and go to Ashdod to be reassembled and then reattached,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
The Pentagon said 1,000 tons of aid had been delivered during the two weeks the pier was operating
The Pentagon blamed rough seas for the accident
The setback comes after the government touted the pier and negotiated with top Israeli officials to open more land routes for emergency aid
The Pentagon says about 1,000 military personnel were involved in the project.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby, who marked the opening of the pier with a series of TV interviews earlier this month, has said that there would be no American boots on the ground in Israel, but that American troops would be on site for the security of the pier.
Israeli journalist Caroline Glick Posted on Monday posted an image commenting on the situation, writing that the pier “sunk” amid rough seas.
“The Biden Pier in Gaza is sinking into the sea… ($320 million sinking with it…),” she wrote. The Jewish press too reported that it was ‘sinking’.
“It was never intended to replace what you can do on the ground,” Kirby said at the White House on Tuesday.
‘It has been difficult whether the weather plays a role. Mother Nature has a say here and the eastern Mediterranean can be a pretty wild place – even in summer,” he said.