US says Gaza humanitarian aid pier could take 60 days to be built

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The Pentagon has said it would take up to 60 days and “over 1,000 forces” to build a floating pier and causeway off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.

US army and navy personnel would not set foot in Gaza during the construction, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said on Friday, while outlining the elaborate logistical operation to send aid into an enclave occupied by Washington’s ally Israel.

The plan for the emergency aid corridor comes amid deepening frustration among Israel’s allies over its failure to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where easier land routes to supply assistance have been shut. In the enclave’s north, which is now under Israeli military control, about 300,000 civilians are on the brink of famine, the UN has warned.

The US forces would build the floating pier, which would receive aid deliveries from vessels loaded in Cyprus, Ryder said. Smaller ships would transport the aid from the pier on to a causeway attached to a beach in Gaza. The aid would then be taken into Gaza, but not by US troops.

The US would build the 1,800-foot pier and causeway at sea, before “propelling it into the shore”. The floating structures would eventually allow for the delivery of 2mn meals per day.

Ryder said the US was “co-ordinating with ally and partner nations, the UN and humanitarian NGOs and the way ahead for distribution of assistance into Gaza”.

“We anticipate that it’ll take over 1,000 US forces to participate in building this capability,” Ryder said. It will take “several weeks, likely up to 60 days, in order to deploy the forces and construct the causeway and the pier”.

Details of the complex, weeks-long pier construction effort came a day after US President Joe Biden urged Israel to do more to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza, which aid agencies…