The Biden administration will soon permanently shut down the star-crossed $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza, American officials said on Thursday.
“I do anticipate that in relatively short order, we will wind down pier operations,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters.
On Wednesday, personnel from the military’s Central Command attempted and failed to reattach the makeshift pier to the beach in Gaza after rough seas forced operators to remove the structure several days ago to avoid damage, the Pentagon said.
In a statement, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said the latest effort to re-anchor the pier failed because of “technical and weather-related issues,” recurring problems that The New York Times identified last month when it reported that military officials had warned aid organizations that the project could be dismantled as early as July.
General Ryder said in the statement on Thursday that the pier, support vessels and other equipment would return to port in Ashdod, Israel, “where they will remain until further notice. A re-anchoring date has not been set.”
Mr. Biden ordered the U.S. military to begin building the pier in March, at a time when he was being sharply criticized for not doing more to rein in Israel’s military response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7. At the time, health authorities were warning that Gaza was on the precipice of famine.
Mr. Sullivan explained that the pier was not as necessary as it once was because more land crossings to ship aid into Gaza had opened in recent weeks under pressure from the White House.
“The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza,” he said. “It’s about getting aid around Gaza effectively. But there are a lot of things that we need to work through, including lawlessness and armed gangs. In some cases, Hamas itself is trying to disrupt and derail the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
Still, humanitarian groups have complained that the pier has largely failed in its mission. In the nearly two months since it was first attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 20 days, military officials said. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns.
Asked if the temporary pier had been a success, Mr. Sullivan rebutted those criticisms.
“Look, I see any result that produces more food, more humanitarian goods getting to the people of Gaza as a success,” he said. “It is something additional that otherwise would not have gotten there when it got there. And that is a good thing.”
The Pentagon said on Thursday that 8,100 metric tons of aid had been delivered to shore using the pier since the operation started on May 17.
It was never meant to be more than a stopgap measure while the Biden administration pushed Israel to allow more food and other supplies into Gaza through land routes, a far more efficient way to deliver relief. But even the modest goals for the pier fell short, some American military officials say.
In recent weeks, Israel has given relief organizations greater access to Gaza, but the groups say the situation remains dire in much of the enclave.
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