The US military will permanently dismantle the pier intended to deliver humanitarian assistance off the coast of Gaza, ending the troubled effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians across the Mediterranean Sea, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday.
The mission of installing and using the temporary floating structure “has been accomplished. Therefore, there is no longer any need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters.
The pier, along with supporting vessels and equipment, is currently in the port of Ashdod, Israel, after being removed on June 28 due to bad weather. The humanitarian aid shipments will soon be transferred to the port, where the aid will be unloaded onto trucks and driven to northern Gaza, Cooper said.
Defense officials said last week they were ending operations of the mission, known officially as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, after continued wind and rough seas in the region prevented the dock from being reconnected to the coast.
The pier’s removal marks the end of a project that has often been the subject of ridicule due to its exorbitant price tag and frequent breakdowns, which have resulted in far less aid delivered to the embattled territory as had been anticipated.
The structure has had to be removed three times since it was installed on May 17, the first time on May 25, after being damaged by high winds and waves. Army ships ran aground in Gaza and Israel, and three of the approximately 1,000 soldiers assigned to build and operate the pier suffered injuries during that time.
The pier was reconnected on June 7, but a week later, on June 14, it was again removed due to weather. It was replaced days later, but rough seas once again damaged the structure and it was never replaced.
President Biden, who first announced the pier in his State of the Union address in March, said last week that he was “disappointed” with the effort to transport aid positioned in Cyprus to the pier to be unloaded at Gaza and dispersed through various humanitarian services. organizations.
“I was disappointed that some of the things I put forward were not successful, like the port we annexed from Cyprus. I was hopeful Cyprusthat would be more successful,” Biden said during a news conference in Washington.
Following the announcement of the project’s end, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the effort as a “national embarrassment.”
“The only miracle is that this doomed operation from the start did not cost any American lives,” Wicker said in a statement. “While I am happy it is finally completed, we cannot recoup the $230 million unnecessarily spent and significant questions remain about the Biden administration’s poor planning for this mission.”
Cooper noted that the project’s price tag “will be well below the $230 million” initially estimated.
The pier was only used for 20 days to deliver around £20 million of aid, but Cooper insisted the operation was a success.
“The pier did exactly what we intended,” he said.
Cooper said there was still at least £5 million of aid remaining in Cyprus and that staff were “remaining on task to get this delivered as quickly as possible”.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
