The contentious US initiative to enhance Gaza aid delivery by constructing a temporary pier has encountered numerous challenges, including poor weather damaging the facility and disrupting the arrival of urgently required assistance.
More than 4,100 metric tonnes (nine million pounds) of supplies have been delivered through the $230 million pier project so far, but it has only been active for short periods of time, falling short of President Joe Biden’s promise to enable a massive increase of aid reaching Gaza every day.
Nearly eight months of Israeli military operations against the Palestinian militant group Hamas have ravaged the coastal enclave, displacing Gaza’s residents and putting them in desperate need of assistance.
Michelle Strucke, director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Humanitarian Agenda, said, “The Gaza pier regretfully amounted to an extremely expensive distraction from what is truly needed, and what is also legally required”.
“It enables safe and unimpeded humanitarian access for humanitarian organizations to provide aid for a population in Gaza that is suffering historic levels of deprivation”, Strucke continued.
Strucke went on to say, “US forces have also dropped aid by air, but this, along with pier deliveries, were never meant to substitute for scaled, sustainable access to land crossings that provided safe access for humanitarian workers to provide aid”.
“Pursuing them took away decision makers’ time, energy, and more than $200 million US taxpayer dollars”, Strucke added.
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