American troops will soon be building a temporary pier on the coast of Gaza as an entryway for aid into the battered Palestinian enclave.
President Joe Biden announced the mission during his State of the Union address Thursday night at the Capitol, building upon airdrops of aid he ordered last week.
“Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” Biden said.
“No U.S. boots will be on the ground,” he vowed.
“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” the president said.
Turning the concept into a working port could take more than 60 days, unidentified U.S. officials told The New York Times.
They estimated the project would take “hundreds or thousands of U.S. troops on ships just off shore,” the Times reported.
The Washington Post reported that when completed, the pier would allow hundreds of trucks to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Is this emergency mission a good idea?
Aid would go through Cyprus, where Israel would inspect shipments heading for Gaza.
“We are not waiting on the Israelis,” the Post quoted one Biden administration official as saying.
The official said that not even during the installation of the pier would U.S. troops go ashore or take aid off ships.
Biden plans to order the US military to build a port in Gaza to deliver aid. Biden’s team has shifted its Israel-Gaza strategy as progressives threaten to sit out the 2024 election. Threats from pro-Palestinian activists to sit out the 2024 election seem to be having an effect.
— Pam Bowling (@PamBowling7) March 8, 2024
As Biden moves to aid Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his nation has no plans to stop its attacks in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the Times.
Israel declared war on Hamas and invaded Gaza after the Islamist group killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took many others hostage in an Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
“It is precisely when the international pressure increases that we must close ranks among ourselves,” Netanyahu said Thursday. “We must stand together against the attempts to stop the war.”
Rafah is the “last Hamas stronghold,” he said.
“Whoever tells us not to operate in Rafah, is telling us to lose the war — and that will not happen,” the prime minister said.
