High seas caused issues with the pier off of Gaza built at President Joe Biden’s command on Saturday, two days after a service member was critically injured on the pier.
Biden ordered the pier to be built to send more aid into Gaza, where hunger has emerged as an issue for the civilian population while Israel roots out Hamas terrorists there.
“Two US Navy ships ran aground on a beach in Ashdod. The tug boat was transporting the floating pier off of Gaza back to the port of Ashdod due to poor sea conditions when it got disconnected & beached here. LCM went in for rescue and also got beached,” CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond posted on X.
Two US Navy ships ran aground on a beach in Ashdod. The tug boat was transporting the floating pier off of Gaza back to the port of Ashdod due to poor sea conditions when it got disconnected & beached here. LCM went in for rescue and also got beached pic.twitter.com/B6HU1B9nfa
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) May 25, 2024
A report in the Jewish Press said part of the pier “broke off due to the high winds and choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea.”
“The first vessel ran aground while trying to retrieve the broken part. A second vessel then also ran aground while trying to retrieve the part. A third vessel also became involved, trying to free the ships that ran aground,” the outlet reported.
A news release from U.S. Central Command said four Army vessels were “affected by heavy sea states.”
“The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier. The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon,” the release said.
Should the Gaza aid pier project be abandoned?
“No U.S. personnel will enter Gaza. No injuries have been reported and the pier remains fully functional,” the release said.
Details are sparse on the injured service member. The soldier was one of three service members injured, and was taken to an Israeli hospital, Military.com reported citing a defense official it did not name. The injury took place while unloading cargo from one ship to another, the official said.
The pier’s cost has now hit $320 million, Reuters reported. That figure is about twice what was initially projected.
“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said, per Reuters. “This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days.”
“For every day this mission continues, the price tag goes up and so does the level of risk for the 1,000 deployed troops within range of Hamas’ rockets,” he added.
Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida said the project was not worth the cost and risk, according to Fox News.
“At the end of the day, it’s unnecessarily putting our people in harm’s way. It’s costing a lot. It’s pulling assets that should be used elsewhere, and I just don’t think it’s going to accomplish anything near what he’s promised,” he said.
“We’ve been briefed that two Navy destroyers are assigned to patrol the waters around the pier,” Waltz said. “Are those being included in their sustained fuel operating costs? The cost of their crew? That’s unclear … and then there’s opportunity cost, right? Those destroyers and other assets, air assets or what have you, are being dedicated to secure this thing from any type of drone or land attack that could be rested and refit in the U.S. and could be used elsewhere.”
Waltz said the issue has never been getting aid to Gaza, but remains getting it to places within Gaza where it is needed.
“It’s going to run into the exact same problems the land routes have faced once it gets across the border,” Waltz said. “The trucks get ransacked. They get attacked. When they do make it to the warehouse, it’s Hamas controlling the warehouses.”
Waltz said the mission is not as simple as it sounds.
“Just getting the amount of material out there in what is often a rough sea state, in a very difficult environment, has been a problem,” Waltz explained. “Then, I think we just have this false notion of no boots on the ground coming from Biden and the administration.”
“I mean, technically, there’s no boots touching sand, but they’re on a dock that’s touching the sand, and we confirmed at a hearing they’re very close to shore,” he continued. “They are within small arms range of any militants that want to fire on them from Gaza, much less the types of drones or missiles that we’ve seen in the Red Sea.”
Waltz said the project is little more than pure political posturing.
“When you have over 100,000 Democrats in the state of Michigan … go and vote against him in the Democrat primary – over 100,000 – that is a heck of a scary political moment for this White House,” Waltz said.
“We’ve seen the policy shifts towards Israel ever since, from Schumer calling for regime change on the Senate floor to the kind of bashing of Netanyahu, to the promising a change in policy if the Israelis carry out their offensive in Rafah … that has all been a signal to the youth vote,” Waltz said.
