TEL AVIV — The Defense Department announced on Tuesday that the U.S. military was obliged to halt humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip by sea due to damage to its makeshift pier infrastructure off of Gaza caused by inclement weather.
Declaring at a press conference, “Unfortunately, we had a perfect storm of high sea states,” was deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh.
The Defense Department anticipates that the pier “will be fully operational in just a little over a week,” according to Singh, who is leading the Army engineers working on its reconstruction.
Singh made his statement in response to NBC News’s claim that a causeway that connects Gaza’s shore to the city had been damaged, which was based on intelligence from US, Israeli, and UN officials.
Small boats transport aid that has been loaded onto the enormous floating dock onto the causeway. According to the U.N. official, repairs might take a week.
The pier system, which President Joe Biden unveiled during his State of the Union address in March and only started operating two weeks ago, has suffered damage, which is the most recent setback.
Four small American military vessels used to transport aid broke free from their moorings over the weekend due to inclement weather, according to the U.S. Central Command. While the other two beached in Gaza, the other two washed up on the southern Israeli coast, not far from Ashdod.
Following noncombat injuries sustained on the pier last week, another American military member is still in serious condition in an Israeli hospital, according to a U.S. defense official. Two further military personnel suffered from minor wounds.
A video that appeared on Israeli social media on Monday was the first indication that there were issues with the causeway. A man in Gaza who is thought to be an Israeli military captured what looked to be a section of the causeway floating in the Mediterranean on camera.
The man said in Hebrew, “Look what’s happening to the American barge—it’s just disconnected and practically swamped.” “All of it is slipping away.”
The U.S. military has also dropped aid into Gaza by parachute, but that has been criticized as both expensive and ineffective, especially when compared to delivering it through land crossings controlled by Egypt and Israel. At least one truck appeared to be on the detached piece of causeway in the video. The Pentagon claims that at full operating capacity, the pier is supposed to be able to deliver up to 150 trucks’ worth of aid every day.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stated last week that he was pursuing the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, creating fresh obstacles to aiding the struggling Palestinians. Additionally, the court declared that it was requesting arrest warrants for Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, and other Hamas leaders.
According to the ICC, a number of “war crimes,” including the starving of people, are the criminal responsibility of Israeli commanders.
Israel has vehemently refuted the accusations and cited the pier as evidence that it is actively attempting to transport food to Gaza by air, land, and sea.