Gaza aid port likely to take two months, 1,000 US troops to build: Pentagon

A floating pier used to deliver critical humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea will take up to two months to build and will require as many as 1,000 U.S. military personnel to complete, a top Pentagon spokesperson said Friday. .

Spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Ryder told reporters that the Pentagon will use Navy and Army personnel to carry out an emergency mission to set up a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza.

“We anticipate that we will need more than 1,000 U.S. troops to participate in building this capability,” Ryder said. “In terms of timeframe…it will probably take several weeks, up to 60 days, to deploy troops and build the causeway and pier.”

He said the offshore jetty would allow “transport vessels to transfer cargo to smaller vessels, which can transport and unload cargo onto temporary causeways to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.” “However, he emphasized that American boots will not be on the ground in the Gaza Strip. enclave.

“Planned initiatives include stationing U.S. military personnel on warships offshore, but there is no need for U.S. military personnel to go ashore,” Ryder explained, adding that the U.S. is working with other countries to build causeways. He added that a decision is being made on who will support the operation. As Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues, it is distributing aid to Gaza.

Ryder said Cyprus had been identified as one of the locations where aid could be loaded onto ships and transported to floating jetties.

The Department of Defense has already identified members of the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary Unit from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, to help construct the pier and embankment, which is expected to be 1,800 feet long and consist of two lanes. ing. There is no cost estimate yet for this effort.

And once built, defense officials expect it will be able to provide more than 2 million meals per day to Gazans through delivery via the pier.

These comments are the first details revealed about how the maritime corridor will work to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, where millions are facing starvation.

Biden announced the construction of the pier during his annual State of the Union address Thursday night and told reporters on Friday that Israel would provide security for the port. He also pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more aid to Gaza.

The president, who has publicly expressed frustration with Netanyahu’s unwillingness to allow more aid into the territory, was caught on a hot mic telling his counterpart that he needed “talks that bring us closer to Jesus.” .

Meanwhile, the United States continues to airlift aid to Gaza, the latest of which was on Friday when Washington and Jordan dropped the equivalent of more than 11,500 meals.

The Pentagon has currently delivered about 124,000 meals in four airlifts over the past week, a method deemed inefficient, expensive and dangerous. At least five people were killed and 10 injured when an aid airdrop malfunctioned in the Gaza Strip on Friday, hitting people and landing on homes.

Ryder said there were no civilian casualties in the U.S. airdrops into the enclave.

“Reports that the U.S. airdrop resulted in civilian casualties on the ground are false, and we can confirm that all of our aid has landed safely on the ground,” he asserted.