The Biden administration’s Gaza aid pier will soon be permanently dismantled, marking a final blow to President Joe Biden’s signature aid plan for the region, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The $230 million pier, meant to serve as a causeway for aid delivery to Gaza via a maritime corridor, was removed by the U.S. military in late June so that it wouldn’t be damaged by a stint of bad weather over the last week. The pier will be put back into place in the coming days for aid operations, but then removed once more for the final time, several U.S. officials confirmed to the AP on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. (RELATED: Iranian Gov’t Agents Have Provided ‘Financial Support’ To Gaza Protesters, US Intel Chief Says)
The closure is far earlier than the Biden administration had hoped for. The initial target was to keep the pier operational through at least September, but a series of operational and logistical issues have hampered the pier’s ability to get aid into Gaza since it was constructed in mid-May.
UNSPECIFIED – MAY 16: (EDITOR’S NOTE: This Handout image was provided by a third-party organization and may not adhere to Getty Images’ editorial policy.) U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces emplace the Trident Pier, May 16, 2024 on the Gaza coast. (Photo by U.S. Central Command via Getty Images)
The pier was hastily built by the U.S. military at the behest of the Biden administration, and was incapable of handling the choppy seas of the Mediterranean, forcing the military to often halt operations or temporarily remove it and tow it north. A spate of bad weather in late May broke the pier apart, rendering it inoperable until the military completed repairs.
Lawmakers and defense experts also raised concerns that the pier was putting the U.S. troops operating it in danger, as it is located only a couple miles off of Gaza’s coastline and potentially susceptible to attacks from Hamas, the terrorist group that ran the region until Israeli forces launched a war against the organization in October. The Pentagon previously admitted that there was a baseline risk of such an attack occurring.
Even when fully operational, the pier is incapable of delivering the aid needed to quell the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The goal was to offload between 90 and 150 truckloads of aid from the pier every day; the actual amount rarely hit that number, and a United Nations official previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that at least 300 trucks are needed every day.
Additionally, some of the aid that has been dropped off via the pier has piled on the shores of Gaza, as the UN’s aid organization has stopped making deliveries from the pier amid security concerns, according to the AP. In the coming days, the goal will be to clear out whatever aid has been piled up and then start working on dismantling the pier, officials told the AP.
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