The platform pitches slowly in the sea. Several steel pontoons, anchored to the seabed, join an almost square surface. To one side, a pier extends its length. This is where ships will bring urgent humanitarian aid and other supplies to the Gaza Strip. This is what the images published on X (Twitter) by the United States Central Command suggest.
Pier-building begins
Construction of the floating JLOTS pier in the Mediterranean is underway.
The pier will support @USAID and humanitarian partners to receive and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. @USTRANSCOM and @USEUCOM support the movement of… pic.twitter.com/tC9J12wz4Z
— US Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 29, 2024
Complex logistics
Work on the makeshift US port, located several kilometers off the coast of Gaza, is almost complete. The floating landing stage is guarded by about a thousand armed American soldiers, who are part of a complex project that is costing $320 million in total.
Because the sea off Gaza is very shallow, the sea platform is only the first landing point for aided cargo ships, which come from Cyprus. The pallets are unloaded on the platform to be picked up and transported by forklifts, which are loaded onto smaller army ships and then headed to the coast.
Just south of Gaza City, a two-lane breakwater with more pontoons was built, extending almost 600 meters into the sea. Once there, the vehicles are taken ashore to move along the breakwater to a delivery area, protected by the Israeli army. There, the pallets are distributed to aid organizations, which take care of the subsequent delivery.
This could bring relief to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Initially, 90 trucks per day will arrive in Gaza through this route. As soon as the port is fully operational, the number of trucks should increase to 150.
Criticisms of the project
However, in the US there is also opposition to the project and it is not only because of its high value. In Ashdod, 30 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip, there is already an operational Israeli deep-water port. From a logistical point of view, it would be much easier and cheaper to send aid through this port.
Instead, President Joe Biden demanded of his military “a very complex, very expensive, low-production operation to bring food to Gaza, when it could massively increase the amount – of aid – with much less effort and cost,” he criticized. military expert Daniel Davis in an article by Quincy Institutea think tank American on foreign policy.
Davis said the US still had leverage on the Israeli government to open Ashdod and the Erez border crossing for deliveries. In fact, several tons of humanitarian aid were stuck in Ashdod for months, because the Israeli government refused to cooperate with UNRWA. The aid agency was accused by Israel of being involved in the Hamas terrorist group’s October 7 massacre.
US involvement in Gaza
There is also concern about the possibility of US soldiers participating in combat operations, something that Biden categorically ruled out. However, in the improvised port there are a thousand armed soldiers from that country.
Likewise, the American military presence is also causing some discomfort on the Palestinian side. There is speculation on social media that Washington could be thinking about building a kind of military bridge to Gaza to support Israel in its fight against Hamas.
Other hypotheses suggest that the US is actually using the floating platform to exploit a gas field off the coast of Gaza and that the humanitarian aid is just a cover. Although there is no evidence of this, it clearly shows that the port generates distrust on the Palestinian side.
Who distributes the merchandise?
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of the organization Refugees Internationalhe asked in the British Guardian “Who is going to distribute the aid?” The presence of aid organizations in northern Gaza is “almost zero.” The sea corridor would only help to a limited extent and could rather create a distribution problem within Gaza.
It was not until Thursday that the US for the first time accused Hamas of intercepting and diverting humanitarian aid in northern Gaza on a large scale. The merchandise has since been released and returned to the humanitarian organization. However, the incident demonstrates how unstable the situation on the ground remains. Aid agencies have therefore expressed concern for the safety of their staff.
(ju/dzc)