US military begins construction of a port pier off Gaza
The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas continues. The operations of the Israeli armed forces in the Strip continue in response to the terrible attack suffered on 7 October when the extremist Palestinian organisation Hamas launched an offensive on Israeli territory that left around 1,200 dead.
The Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip has already left tens of thousands of casualties, with the target now clearly the enclave of Rafah, as planned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet.
Meanwhile, international mediation is ongoing to halt the barbarity and bring about a cessation of hostilities. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been the main countries mediating between the parties in recent weeks, so far to no avail.
On this point, the US army has begun the construction of a port dock in front of Gaza with the aim of facilitating the transit of humanitarian aid. This aid will, in any case, be inspected by the Israeli detachments on the ground.
Humanitarian aid leaving the dock will have to pass through Israeli checkpoints on the ground, even though Israel had already inspected international aid in Cyprus before sending it to Gaza.
US troops have thus begun construction of a maritime pier off the Gaza coast that is intended to speed up the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave when it becomes operational in May, the Pentagon itself confirmed. "I can confirm that US military ships, including the USS Benavidez, have begun construction of the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea," Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Patrick Ryder said.
US President Joe Biden announced in March that this infrastructure would be developed, while activists involved in international aid urged Israel to facilitate access for supplies to Gaza via land routes.
It is unclear whether this port pier will allow a boost for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, an area that is experiencing difficult conditions of lack of food and resources of all kinds in the wake of the Israeli military intervention. The United Nations (UN) and other international institutions have warned of the humanitarian alert and the serious risk of famine for a large part of the 2.3 million Gazan population, which is suffering the consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas.
A senior US administration official has indicated that humanitarian aid leaving the dock will have to pass through Israeli checkpoints on the ground; this despite the fact that Israel had already inspected the aid in Cyprus before sending it to Gaza, as reported by media outlets such as Arab News.
What Israel wants to avoid at all costs is that all these resources reach armed units of the extremist Palestinian group Hamas and serve to help them in their war with the Israel Defense Forces.
This prior control could lead to delays in the arrival of aid, while the international community continues to call on Israel not to hinder the arrival of supplies to the Gaza Strip.
In any case, Washington has confirmed that there will be no US soldiers on Gazan soil, which comes as a relief in the face of escalating tensions in the area.
Initially, the dock will handle 90 trucks per day, but that number could increase to 150 trucks per day when fully operational.
The same Biden Administration source indicated that some 1,000 US troops would support the effort, including in coordination units in Cyprus and Israel.
