Heavy seas tore four U.S. Army vessels from their moorings Saturday while they were trying to assist humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
Two vessels are beached along Israel’s coast near Ashkelon while the other two are anchored on the beach near the temporary pier built and put in place by the U.S. military, U.S.Central Command announced.
No U.S. personnel were injured by the stormy seas, CENTCOM said, while Israel Defense Forces are assisting in recovering the vessels, and the pier remains fully functional.
A U.S. military vessel that ran aground at a beach in Israel’s coastal city of Ashdod on May 25, 2024. The U.S. military said four of its vessels, supporting a temporary pier built to deliver aid to Gaza by sea, had run aground in heavy seas. (OREN ZIV/AFP via Getty Images)
Israelis look on as U.S. soldiers guard a military vessel that ran aground at a beach in the coastal city of Ashdod on May 25, 2024. (OREN ZIV/AFP via)
A woman takes a picture of a stranded U.S. military vessel that ran aground at a beach in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod on May 25, 2024. (OREN ZIV/AFP via Getty)
The disruption is one of many affecting operations at the temporary pier, whose deployment was delayed until last week due to stormy seas and other causes.
The temporary structure, announced by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address, was completed last week, and the Pentagon said some 569 metric tons of aid had been brought ashore thus far.
However, the Pentagon is unable to say how much, if any, of that aid has actually reached the organizations that are supposed to distribute it, as reports have emerged of Palestinians simply seizing aid from the back of delivery trucks, as Breitbart News reported.
Reuters reported “there has been no aid delivered to a U.N. warehouse from a U.S.-built pier for two days.”