US military ship heading to Gaza to build port
The US military vessel is en route to the Middle East, intending to construct a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, according to military officials.
The support vessel, named General Frank S Besson, embarked from a military installation in Virginia last Saturday.
This deployment follows President Joe Biden’s announcement that the US would erect a floating harbor to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza by sea.
The United Nations has issued warnings of an imminent famine in the Gaza Strip, with reports of children succumbing to starvation.
On Sunday, the US military conducted an airdrop alongside Jordan, delivering over 11,500 meals comprising rice, flour, pasta, and canned goods.
Efforts to deliver aid by land and air have been fraught with challenges. The World Food Programme suspended land convoys due to gunfire and looting incidents. Tragically, five individuals were reportedly killed by a plummeting aid package when its parachute malfunctioned last Friday.
The US vessel set sail “less than 36 hours” following President Biden’s announcement, as confirmed by US Central Command.
The ship is transporting the initial equipment needed to establish a temporary pier for the distribution of essential humanitarian supplies to Gaza, according to the statement.
The Pentagon estimates that it could take up to 60 days to construct the pier with the assistance of 1,000 troops, none of whom will disembark.
Charitable organizations have voiced concerns that the residents of Gaza cannot afford to wait for such a protracted duration.
Meanwhile, an aid ship laden with some 200 tonnes of food had been expected to set sail from a port in Larnaca, Cyprus on Sunday afternoon, Cypriot media reported.
However as Sunday night ticked into Monday morning, it was still docked in Cyprus.
The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), which has provided the food aid, told the BBC: “This maritime operation remains a quickly evolving and fluid situation… we plan to embark as soon as possible.”
It follows an EU announcement that a new sea route would be opened over the weekend to allow aid to sail directly from Cyprus – the closest EU country to Gaza.
The ship, Open Arms, belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name. Exactly where it plans to dock when it reaches Gaza has not been publicly revealed.
Gaza has no functioning port and its surrounding waters are too shallow for large vessels, but WCK said its team had been building a jetty off the coast to receive the aid.
The charity added that its plans are “not related” to the floating pier the US is aiming to build.
Israel has welcomed the ocean initiative, and said aid would be delivered after security checks were carried out in Cyprus “in accordance with Israeli standards”.
Israel’s military launched an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.
More than 30,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
The conflict has created a growing humanitarian crisis, and the UN has warned that at least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip – one quarter of the population – are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Western countries have pressed Israel to expand land deliveries by facilitating more routes and opening additional crossings.
Lorries have been entering the south of Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of the Israeli ground offensive, has been largely cut off from assistance in recent months.
An estimated 300,000 Palestinians are living there with little food or clean water.
Israel has been accused of hampering aid efforts, and an independent UN expert last week accused it of mounting “a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Yeela Cytrin, a legal adviser at the Israeli mission to the UN, responded that “Israel utterly rejects allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war”, before walking out in protest.
