A truck carries humanitarian aid across the U.S.-built temporary pier off Gaza on May 19, 2024. (U.S. Army Central)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will remove the temporary pier that operated for less than two weeks off the coast of Gaza after suffering damages from rough seas and bad weather, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
“Due to high sea states and a North African weather system, earlier today a portion of the Trident pier separated from the pier that is currently anchored into the coast of Gaza. The rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take at least over a week,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. “Upon completion of the pier … the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid.”
In the next two days, the pier will be removed from its anchored position and towed back to the Israeli port city of Ashdod where U.S. Central Command forces will conduct repairs.
The pier was fully functional as late as Saturday when heavy seas unmoored four U.S. Army vessels that were being used to ferry pallets of aid from commercial vessels to the pier, which was anchored into the beach and provided a long causeway for trucks to drive that aid onto the shore.
A video screen grab shows a U.S. military vessel that ran aground in Ashdod, Israel, due to heavy seas. (Reuters)
As of Tuesday, one vessel that was beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon has been recovered, Singh said. The second vessel beached near Ashkelon will be recovered in the next 24 hours. The remaining two vessels that were beached near the pier are expected to be recovered in the next 48 hours.
The pier costs about $320 million and involves roughly 1,000 American forces.
The Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, pier is meant to provide another way to deliver needed aid into Gaza. The World Health Organization has warned some 2.3 million Gaza inhabitants face extreme hunger that could become a full-blown famine as Israel continues its war against Hamas militants who launched a surprise assault in October from the enclave.
President Joe Biden first announced the JLOTS operation on March 7. One day later, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesman, said the temporary pier would be operational within about 60 days.
The temporary pier was installed after being delayed due to weather conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and delivery of aid began nearly two weeks ago.
Ryder told reporters last week that more than 569 metric tons of humanitarian assistance had been delivered through the temporary pier to the shore of Gaza to be distributed to humanitarian partners. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that some aid had been delivered to “Palestinians that specifically need it.”
Overhead imagery shows the U.S.-built temporary pier off the coast of Gaza being used to deliver humanitarian aid. (U.S. Central Command)
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said last week that three service members suffered noncombat-related injuries helping deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Singh said Tuesday that one service member remains in critical condition.
The suspension of the pier comes as more than 1,000 metric tons of aid have been delivered.
The flow of aid starts in Cyprus, where it is inspected and loaded onto ships to travel about 200 miles to the floating pier in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Once it arrives, the aid is transferred by U.S. military vessels to the causeway attached to the Gaza coast. From there, trucks driven by a third party take the aid into Gaza, not the U.S. military.
“Some of that aid that is currently in Cyprus is being loaded onto vessels. So, when the pier is re-anchored back onto the Gaza shore, that aid will already be prepositioned and roll off pretty immediately,” Singh said.
