Geostrategic Media Political Commentary, Analysis, Security, Defense
The US military announced on Wednesday that its mission to install and operate the Gaza floating port has ended, officially ending an exceptional, but faltering, effort to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip. The dock, which President Joe Biden announced in a televised address to Congress in March, was a massive effort involving 1,000 US troops. But bad weather and challenges to the distribution process inside the Gaza Strip have limited the effectiveness of what the US military says is its largest aid delivery mission in the Middle East ever. “The naval mission involving the floating dock has been completed. Therefore, there is no need to use the dock anymore,” Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command, said in a press briefing.
Cooper said the effort to distribute aid by sea in Gaza will now shift to the port of Ashdod in Israel. “Our assessment is that the Gaza Floating Port has had its intended effect of increasing the volume of aid to Gaza and ensuring that aid reaches civilians in Gaza quickly,” he said, adding that about 20 million pounds of aid has been delivered to Gaza. The dock has become a flashpoint in Congress, with Republicans calling it a political stunt by Biden, who has been under pressure from fellow Democrats to do more to support the Palestinians after months of strong support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
“This chapter may be over for President Biden, but the national embarrassment this project has caused is not,” said Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The only miracle is that this operation, which was doomed from the start, did not cost an American life.” After the pier began being used to bring aid into a staging area on the Gaza coast, the 370-meter-long floating dock had to be removed several times due to bad weather. The dock has not been used since June, when it was moved to the port of Ashdod due to bad weather, and it is unclear whether the U.S. military has begun dismantling the dock in Ashdod ahead of its expected return to the United States. U.S. officials had hoped the dock would provide a significant flow of aid to Gaza’s population as the nine-month-old war drags on.
But while more than 19.4 million pounds (8.6 million kilograms) of food has reached Gaza via the dock, the project has been hampered by high seas and by security threats that have halted deliveries as Israeli shelling of the territory continues. The U.N. World Food Program suspended operations via the Gaza floating dock in June over security concerns, causing aid to pile up on the Gaza coast. The United Nations has long said that delivering aid by sea is no substitute for delivering it by land, and said it is essential that land routes remain the focus of relief operations in the sector, which the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification monitor said last month is facing a high risk of famine.
