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11 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States announced Thursday that it will dismantle the temporary dock for unloading humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, thus ending the mission announced by US President Joe Biden with the aim of increasing the entry of supplies into the Palestinian enclave.
Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said in a statement on Thursday that US Central Command (CENTCOM) personnel attempted to anchor the temporary dock off the coast of Gaza the day before, but the operation failed due to “technical and weather problems.”
“The temporary pier has been a critical part of the U.S. effort to increase aid to Gaza. To date, more than 8,100 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered from the pier,” he said.
Ryder said the pier was intended “as a temporary solution to allow for additional flow of aid into Gaza during a period of extreme humanitarian need with limited access, complementing existing ground and air delivery channels.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, meanwhile, said at a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington that the operations would end “in a relatively short period of time,” according to Politico.
Since the establishment of this infrastructure, the US military has been forced to halt humanitarian aid shipments to the Hamas-controlled Strip due to high tides on up to four occasions.
Shipments to the pier built by the Biden administration were arriving through the maritime corridor opened in March from Cyprus to try to increase aid to Gaza in the face of restrictions imposed by Israel on land passages.
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