US removes Gaza aid pier with no plans to reinstall it

It is the third time the structure has been dismantled because of weather concerns

Lorries loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier off Gaza before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, on June 25, 2024. AP

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The US military on Saturday said its temporary pier was removed from the coast of Gaza and sent back to the Israeli port of Ashdod because of bad weather and heavy tides.

Officials said Washington may not reinstall it unless aid deliveries – which had been paused because of security concerns – resume.

It is the third time the pier has been detached from the shore because of weather conditions and the Pentagon has said there is no planned date for its reconnection.

“I don’t have a date of when the pier will be reinstalled,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters on Friday. She said aid was still sitting in a storage yard amid warnings by humanitarian groups of famine in Gaza.

The pier was first anchored to the Gaza coast in mid-May, but was damaged by bad weather later in the month and had to be removed for repairs.

It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod on June 14 to protect it from high seas – a situation that is now being repeated.

The US Central Command said in a statement on Saturday that since May 17, more than 8,831 metric tonnes of aid have been delivered to the people of Gaza by humanitarian organisations.

“In the last week alone, more than 10 million pounds of aid was delivered to Gaza by the temporary pier, providing the second-highest volume of aid in all crossings,” it said.

The UN, which has the widest reach in delivering aid to starving Palestinians, has not been distributing food and other emergency supplies arriving through the pier since June 9.

UN World Food Programme spokesman Steve Taravella said on Friday that the UN participation in the pier project is on pause pending resolution of the security concerns.

It is unclear if the pier will be reattached to the shore.

“When the commander decides that it is the right time to reinstall that pier, we’ll keep you updated on that,” Ms Singh said.

US officials told AP that there were no plans under way to return the pier to Gaza.

Aid deliveries across the pier were halted after the Israeli military used a nearby area to fly out hostages after rescuing them in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians, prompting a UN security review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have compromised.

More Gaza strikes

The Israeli military continued attacks on Gaza on Saturday, killing several Palestinians, Wafa news agency reported.

Eight people, including children and women, were killed and others injured in two air strikes on two houses in the Sabra and Daraj neighbourhoods in Gaza city.

A number of people were also killed and others injured in a drone attack in Sabra, Wafa reported. Several others were killed in air strikes in the centre of the city.

In central Gaza, four Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on a residential house in Bureij refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported. The victims were taken to Al Aqsa and Al Awda hospitals in the province for treatment.

One person was killed and scores injured in an Israeli air attack on a house in Al Maghazi camp.

Medical sources said that two people were killed and others injured in artillery shelling on tents of displaced people in Al Mawasi area in the southern city of Rafah.

Rescue teams recovered bodies of five Palestinians in Al Shakoush area in western Rafah, Wafa said.

Israeli tanks also fired at the houses of Palestinians in Khan Younis.

The Israeli army said on Saturday its troops are continuing operations against "terror" targets in Gaza city's Shujaiya area, fighting above and below ground.

It claimed that over the past day the troops killed a large number of militants and located a weapons storage facility within a school compound.

As part of the operation in the area, warplanes struck "terror targets and armed terrorist cells, including a terrorist cell that was on its way to fire at troops."

In Rafah, the army said it continues its "intelligence-based operational activity", and that ground troops killed numerous militants in the area, and dismantled "a large amount of terrorist infrastructure, including underground terror tunnel shafts," backed by air strikes.

Meanwhile, the US military on Saturday said that its forces destroyed seven drones and one ground control station vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the past 24 hours.

The drone and the ground control station “presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region, the US Central Command said.

The Houthis said they attacked four vessels in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on Friday.

The group, with the help of the Iran-backed group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, fired on an oil tanker with drones as it travelled to the Israeli port of Haifa.

Another boat, operated by Maersk, was hit by a cruise missile in the Mediterranean, a Houthi representative said.

Two ships in the Red Sea were also hit by drones and missiles.

The Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in attacks they say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.