The Biden administration likely spent millions in taxpayer funds for every day its Gaza aid pier was actually operational, according to multiple reports.
The pier was constructed in mid-May and meant to serve as a causeway for aid delivery to the Palestinians via a maritime route. But problems plagued the pier nearly from the moment it became operational. The platform will likely only last a few more days this week before it is shuttered entirely, three U.S. officials told ABC News on Tuesday. (RELATED: Biden Pentagon Could Buy Almost A Dozen Aircraft Carriers With What It’s Set To Spend On One Missile Program)
A US soldier stands on a US military vessel that ran aground at a beach in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod on May 25, 2024. The US military said four of its vessels, supporting a temporary pier built to deliver aid to Gaza by sea, had run aground in heavy seas.
The pier was frequently shut down due to a string of logistical and operational problems, according to ABC. It was hastily built by the U.S. military at the behest of the Biden administration and could not be operated in the frequent bad weather and high sea conditions of the Mediterranean, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
Stormy weather broke the pier apart in late May, forcing the U.S. military to tow it north for repairs, which took over a week. It was put back in place in early June, but from then on was removed and re-anchored several times so that more stints of unfavorable weather conditions wouldn’t damage it, according to ABC.
The Pentagon previously admitted that there was a baseline risk that U.S. troops who were operating the pier could be attacked by Hamas or other bad actors. The landing site for the pier on the shores of Gaza was bombed in mortar fire by an unidentified terrorist group weeks before construction began.
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 17: White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks to reporters during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on May 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kirby updated reporters about the humanitarian aid being delivered to the Gaza Strip using a floating platform and pier built by the United States military. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The pier was also largely ineffective at delivering the necessary humanitarian aid to residents of Gaza, who have been caught in the crossfire of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The goal was to offload between 90 and 150 trucks of aid per day from the pier; a United Nations official previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that between 300 and 500 trucks of aid were needed on a daily basis.
And a large bulk of the aid that has been loaded off of the pier is piled up on the shores, as the chief organization responsible for distributing aid stopped making distributions from the pier in early June, citing security concerns. Officials told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the next several days this week would be spent trying to clear out some of the aid that’s been piling up ahead of the pier removal.
Defense experts and former U.S. officials previously told the DCNF that the pier was a “terrible idea” — even before it was built — and that there were far more effective ways to deliver aid to the Palestinians, chiefly through truck convoys through border crossings in Israel and Egypt.
“All these other problems are so severe to me that it’s not worth the risk, which is why it is disappointing that the administration is putting politics ahead of sound military and intelligence planning,” Michael DiMino, fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank and CIA official, told the DCNF weeks before the pier was built. “This was fairly last minute — the administration was looking for a Goldilocks approach that would allow them not to have to put more pressure on Israel, or put more pressure on Egypt, but to work around the bigger issue here.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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