- The pier built by the US military was inaugurated just two weeks ago.
- It will now be towed to Ashdod in Israel for repairs.
A floating dock built by the US military intended to bring aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza was damaged in rough seas and will have to be towed for repair after a part broke, the Biden administration said on Tuesday.
Just two weeks after opening, pier operations were temporarily suspended and repairs could take more than a week. President Biden announced the project in March and the White House touted it as acfundamental tool to bring relief to the population devastated by war.
The Biden administration had announced the pier as an at least temporary solution to reports of mass suffering and famine in Gaza. With an estimated price tag of $320 million, it provides a way to bring aid from Cyprus even as Israel resists U.S. pressure to open more land routes for the delivery of supplies.
It will now 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.
Pentagon blames rough seas for pier problems. U.S. Central Command said choppy conditions caused four U.S. vessels to break free from the dock. Two of them were washed ashore in Gaza.
A floating dock built by the US military intended to bring aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza was damaged in rough seas and will have to be towed for repair after a part broke, the Biden administration said on Tuesday.
Ground images show the rusting hull of a US Army ship that had become stranded amid efforts to free it. Two other boats are anchored off the beach.
As Singh described it, the Trident pier, which has been anchored to Rafa Beach, must be removed before work can be done on it.
‘Think of that Trident dock as having a big T-shirt. That top portion of the tee was disconnected, so it has been recovered. But to be able to reassemble everything it’s going to have to be separated from the shore, moved to Ashdod to be reassembled and then put back together, re-anchored,’ he said.
Singh said the dock had handled about 1,000 metric tons (more than 2,000 pounds) of aid that had been delivered to the dock before it went offline.
Repairs to the US-built floating dock could take more than a week, and humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza through the dock have been halted. The pier is pictured on May 16.
A US military landing craft stranded in Ashdod on Sunday, May 26, 2024, after being carried by wind and current from the temporary humanitarian dock in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
“To reassemble everything that is going to be separated from the shore, moved to Ashdod to be assembled and then reattached,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
The Pentagon said 1,000 metric tons of aid had been delivered during the two weeks the pier was operational.
The Pentagon blamed rough seas for the mishap
The setback comes after the administration touted the pier and negotiated with senior Israeli officials to open more land routes for aid.
The Pentagon says about 1,000 service members participated in the project.
White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby, who marked the pier’s opening with a series of television interviews earlier this month, said there would be no U.S. troops in Israel, but that U.S. forces would provide security for the pier.
Israeli journalist Caroline Glick aware an image on Monday with a comment on the situation, writing that the pier was “sinking” in the middle of rough seas.
“Biden’s Gaza dock is sinking into the sea… ($320 million sinking along with it…),” he wrote. The Jewish press too reported that was “sinking.”
“It was never intended to supplant what can be done on the ground,” Kirby said Tuesday at the White House.
‘It has been hard, time influences. “Mother Nature has a say here and the Eastern Mediterranean, even in summer, can be a pretty tough place,” she stated.