American taxpayers will be footing the bill for at least $22 million to fix the Gaza pier, which suffered damage to its structure due to heavy seas.
The Washington Post reported:
“The pier was reattached to the coastline Friday after a mishap in which heavy seas cost at least $22 million in damage to the structure.”
“More than a million pounds of aid flowed over it Saturday, but operations were curtailed again Sunday and Monday because of more heavy sea conditions.”
Meanwhile, the World Food Program announced it would suspend aid operations because of rampant looting.
“We are reassessing the safety aspects of where we should be and what this means for us,” said World Food Program head Cindy McCain.
“It made things a lot more dangerous. … The crowd is already hungry. They’re desperate. And then to have something like this occur?”
“[WFP trucks] are looted because it’s so difficult to get along,” she added.
As The Western Journal noted, Hamas has a long history of requisitioning aid provided by the West.
“The United States has been leading international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Joe Biden 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 sources, the military was not appraised of the plan before it was announced.
Biden says "no U.S. boots will be on the ground" for Gaza aid pier at his State of the Union speech pic.twitter.com/ySoQZUaLjk
— Military Times (@MilitaryTimes) March 8, 2024
As Fox News reported, the pier had “caused several issues since USAID commenced deliveries.”
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said some of the trouble was due to “heavy sea states,” which caused the temporary pier “to break free from their anchors due to a loss in power and subsequently beach ashore.”
“I think unfortunately, we had a perfect storm of high seas states, and then, as I mentioned, this North African weather system also came in at the same time, creating not an optimal environment to operate this JLOTS– this temporary pier.”
“There is no viable alternative to keeping the overland crossings open and unimpeded,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told the Washington Post this week.
“Even if the pier is repaired, it remains vulnerable to suspended operations any time there are moderately heavy seas.”
