The temporary U.S. military pier built to ferry aid to civilians in Gaza will shut down and the international community will now deliver aid to Israel’s Ashdod port, officials announced Wednesday.
“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,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Wednesday.
The aid delivered to Ashdod, an Israeli port north of Gaza, will need to move into Gaza through land crossings. Cooper said land crossings are “the most effective and efficient” method to ferry aid into Gaza and described the Ashdod port as a “more sustaining pathway.” Since the conflict began last year, Israel has periodically closed land border crossings, including in May when it took over the Rafah crossing that borders Egypt.
While the military pier will no longer be in use, the U.S. will still help coordinate humanitarian aid delivery.
Cooper said 2.4 million pounds of aid has been air dropped into Gaza, 33.5 million pounds has been delivered through land crossings, and nearly 20 million pounds has moved through the temporary pier known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore operation.
It’s unclear what the end to the temporary pier operation means for the Army watercraft that have facilitated the aid’s delivery. Cooper said there are still millions of pounds of aid in Cyprus that will now travel to Gaza through Ashdod. Cyprus has acted as a staging area for the maritime corridor. Trucks are loaded with aid in Cyprus and then sail to the waters off Gaza, where they then drive onto the U.S. Army watercraft and sail to the JLOTS pier. That pier is anchored to the Gaza shore.
Cooper would not comment on the fate of the Army watercraft that have been delivering the aid to the pier.
“We’ll develop a plan that redeploys or remissions those in a prudent and safe manner,” he said.
When pressed as to whether the vessels are necessary to facilitate aid delivery to Ashdod, Cooper said: “The ships that have been delivering aid are the ones that we’re going to continue using to deliver aid and we’re going to let that process play out and just kind of go from there.”
Explaining the decision to shift to operations at Ashdod, Cooper cited the current high sea states in the Mediterranean.
In May, a soldier was critically injured and two other service members were hurt during Gaza pier operations. Asked about the status of their injuries on Wednesday, Cooper said two of the servicemembers had minor injuries. The soldier is currently in San Antonio, Texas and is no longer in critical condition. Cooper declined to provide additional details.
