The Biden administration is insisting its Gaza pier will be reopened this week, after it was recently towed for a second time to a port in Israel in order for it to survive waves of over four feet.
“We expect it will go operational again this week,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday.
However, Ryder did not dispute a New York Times report that said the $230 million pier “has largely failed in its mission” to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza, and “will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected.”
The Times reported, “In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. 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.”
American military officials told the outlet that even the modest goals for the pier are likely to fall short.
Ryder said in response to the report:
Look, we’ve said all along, first of all, that the pier is a temporary measure. I don’t have any dates to announce, in terms of when it will cease operations. Of course, as I just mentioned, we’re looking forward to getting it operational again soon and to delivering aid. And, you know, we’re going to capitalize on the conditions, you know, in terms of weather, to get as much aid across that pier as we can.
President Joe Biden announced during his high-profile State of the Union address in March that he was directing the U.S. military to build the temporary pier.
He said:
Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. No U.S. boots will be on the ground. This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.
According to a source, troops and their families were only given two days’ notice in advance, before sending them off to the Middle East a week later to build and operate the pier. According to CNN, the idea of a temporary pier was considered as early as October.
The pier was envisioned to be able to transport 150 trucks a day of aid, but aid workers told the Times that the equivalent of seven truckloads a day were being sent over the pier in the roughly 10 days it has been in service.
The pier was opened on May 17, only to break apart eight days later, on May 25.
Pentagon officials blamed “unanticipated” weather, but naval experts say the pier — formally known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore System (JLOTS) — cannot handle waves taller than about four feet and was never meant to be used in this kind of situation.
Breitbart News last week obtained exclusive video of the pier being battered by waves shortly before it broke apart.
The video prompted ridicule and mocking of Biden and the pier from lawmakers and the public alike.
After the pier broke into pieces it was detached from Gaza and towed to a port in Ashdod, Israel, for repair. About a week later, it was reattached to Gaza and reopened, only for operations to be suspended about a day later due to weather conditions. It was then detached again and towed back to Ashdod due to weather.
The Times reported “military officials are now warning aid organizations that the project could be dismantled as early as next month.” The paper called it a “bright spot” that the pier has “not yet been hit in an attack.”
The source told Breitbart News it was being targeted daily with mortars, bombs, and gunfire.
After it was rumored that the pier was used in an Israel military operation to rescue hostages, the World Food Program announced it had paused distributing aid from the pier out of concern it jeopardized their workers’ safety.
A second source told Breitbart News that families are being told the mission for the roughly 1,000 American troops operating the pier would end either at the end of June or July.
However, Ryder said there was no end date yet.
“I’m not tracking any established timeline at this point, in terms of when the pier will stop operating, again with the caveat that this was always intended to be a temporary pier. I’m not aware at this point of any established date of this is when we’re going to stop,” he said.
“When we have anything new to announce, we certainly will, but as of right now, that’s where we’re at,” Ryder said.
He pushed back against the idea of the pier being a failure, saying 7.7 million pounds of aid have been delivered over the pier, which according to the Wall Street Journal, amounted to several days’ worth of aid. It is not clear how much aid has actually reached people in Gaza, due to the difficulties in distributing that aid once on land.
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