Faced with Israel’s delays and blockages in the distribution of humanitarian aid by land to a Gaza Strip affected by a humanitarian catastrophe, US President Joe Biden had announced in early March the construction of an artificial port.
US military ships “have begun to build (…) the temporary port and pier at sea”, Pentagon (United States Department of Defense) spokesman General Pat Ryder told the press.
This temporary seaport should allow military or civil ships to deposit their cargo there. The humanitarian aid will then be taken by logistical support vessels to a pier on the coast of Gaza.
American officials stated that this operation will not involve “ground troops” in that war-torn Palestinian territory.
US soldiers will, however, be close to the Gaza Strip during the construction of the port and pier, which is expected to be supervised by Israeli troops.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will probably be in charge of distributing the aid, once delivered to the territory, the Pentagon had already informed.
On October 7, Israel declared a war in the Gaza Strip to “eradicate” the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas after it, hours earlier, carried out an attack of unprecedented proportions on Israeli territory, killing 1,163 people, most of them civilians.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) — in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel — also took 250 hostages, around 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 have since died , according to the most recent assessment by Israeli authorities.
The war, which today entered its 202nd day and continues to threaten to spread throughout the entire Middle East region, has so far left more than 34,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, more than 77,000 injured and thousands of people missing, presumably buried in the rubble, in mostly civilians, according to updated figures from local authorities.
The conflict has also left almost two million people displaced, plunging the overpopulated and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a “situation of catastrophic hunger” that is claiming victims – “the highest number ever recorded” by the UN in studies on food security in the world.
