It was a great idea, and it was desperately needed. But the US floating pier on the Gaza coast has been shut down – for good. Officials say it was just too much trouble to maintain. But more than a million people in Gaza are still starving…
The floating pier, during it’s final stint in operation, on June 12, 2024…
The history
When Israel cut off all land routes for the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this year, the US government offered a solution. It sent its army and navy engineers to install a floating pier off the besieged strip’s coast. The facility was supposed receive humanitarian aid supplies a shipload at a time, and make a real dent in the level 5 famine disaster there.
And it worked well for a few short weeks. Then, a freak Mediterranean storm heavily damaged the pier, putting it out of commission for what was then described as ‘an indefinite period of time’. Alas, the facility never really returned to full service.
It was ‘disconnected’ from its shore base to avoid damage in coming storms, and towed to a safe harbour. Then again, at the end of last month, it was shut down for the same reason. US officials said the move was as much for the safety of the American service members staffing the platform as it was for the preservation of the pier from further damage.
At that time, officials stated that, since the $230 million pier first started operations in May, it had delivered 8,831 metric tons, or more than 19.4 million pounds / 8.81 million kg, of humanitarian aid. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) suspended distribution of supplies already landed, pending a review of the security situation in Gaza.
Calling it quits
Now, the US officials in charge of the pier project have quietly called off the project, permanently.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” Deputy Commander of US Central Command Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters on Wednesday.
But other US officials have complained that the $230 million project was a ‘monumental’ waste of taxpayer dollars.
During it’s 2 months in service, the pier operated as planned for a total of only 20 days.
My take
Make no mistake: the famine disaster in Gaza is nowhere near over. Sonali Korde, Assistant to the Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, told reporters last week that aid distribution remains a ‘key challenge’.
That’s on top of the obvious question of how to continue shipping food and other supplies into Gaza.
~ Maggie J.