Just a week after a temporary offshore pier designed to bring in much-needed humanitarian aid war-torn Gaza reopened after repairsauthorities announced on Friday that it will again be temporarily dismantled due to rough seas.
The US Central Command announced this on Friday the US built pier was removed from the Gaza coast and towed back to Ashdod, Israel, to prevent it from being damaged. The pier will be “expeditiously re-anchored” once water conditions are calm, CENTCOM said, but did not provide an estimate of when that would be.
“The decision to temporarily relocate the pier was not taken lightly, but is necessary to ensure that the temporary pier can continue to provide relief in the future,” the agency said in a statement.
The pier, which cost an estimated $320 million in construction costs according to the Pentagon, was pre-assembled at Ashdod Port. It was first installed on May 17 off the coast of Gaza, but was only operational for about a week before being disintegrated by heavy seas.
Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images
It underwent repairs and reopened to emergency services on June 8, before being closed again on Friday.
Since its initial installation, approximately £7.7 million in aid has been delivered to Gaza through the pier, CENTCOM reports.
In April, Defense Department officials said the pier was expected to deliver about 90 trucks of aid per day, rising to 150 per day at full capacity.
President Biden first announced the maritime aid corridor during his State of the Union address in March. Mr Biden said no US troops will set foot in Gaza. There are approximately 1,000 US military personnel engaged in the maritime corridor operation just off the coast.
Earlier Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said announced that it had sanctioned an Israeli extremist group known as Tsav 9 for directing it to attack about aid convoys in the occupied West Bank, intended to prevent aid deliveries to Gaza.
— Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
