Pentagon suspends aid deliveries via Gaza pier after repeated mishaps

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it has suspended the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza via its floating pier after separate mishaps in which four U.S. military vessels were beached, one U.S. service member was critically injured and sections of the structure were ripped free in bad weather.

The damage will require the U.S. military, with Israeli assistance, to disassemble pieces of the pier attached to the Gazan shore, rebuild them in the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod, then transport them back to the Gazan shore and reconnect them, said Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman. That process will take at least a week, temporarily eliminating the pier as an option to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza as Israel continues its months-long military campaign against the militant group Hamas.

“The pier proved highly valuable in delivering aid to the people of Gaza,” Singh said. “Thus, upon completion of the pier repair and reassembly, the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid to the people who need it most.”

The project, announced by President Biden in March, is intended to provide an additional route to get aid to Gazan civilians, as land routes have been squeezed by Israeli officials and beset with looting and violence. While the U.S. military has been able to deliver more than 1,000 tons of aid over the pier this month, according to officials, its initial installation was delayed for days by bad weather, and it is unclear whether the refurbishment in Ashdod may render it less susceptible to storms.

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Singh, asked whether the pier deployment, with an estimated cost of more than $300 million, is not viable under such conditions, said that heavy seas in recent days and a North African storm system had combined to create “not an optimal environment” to operate the pier.

“Look, I can’t predict the weather,” she said. “But we believe that given the time of year, we will be able to re-anchor this pier and it will be able to be operational, and hopefully weather conditions won’t hinder it anymore.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a separate briefing that “Mother Nature has a say here” in how the pier operates and that the eastern Mediterranean Sea, “even in the summertime, can be a pretty tough place.” Considering recent weather and the multistep process required to move aid from ship to shore, he said, the operation has “an impressive record so far.”

The aid suspension, first reported by NBC News, came after the latest mishap Tuesday, in which a portion of the pier separated in heavy seas and began floating away, Singh said. The rest of the pier will be disassembled over the next two days and towed back to Ashdod for repairs.

On Saturday, rough seas broke four Army vessels from their moorings, said officials with U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region. Two dropped anchor near the pier off the coast of Gaza, while the other two beached near the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

The Israeli navy will help push the vessels back into the sea in the next day or two, Singh said. As of Tuesday afternoon, one of the two vessels abandoned at sea had been recovered, and another was due to be soon.

Last week, three U.S. soldiers involved in pier operations were injured in a separate noncombat incident at sea, Singh said. Two of those soldiers suffered minor injuries, while the third service member has been in critical condition for days. U.S. officials have declined to specify what occurred in that situation.

Last month, a fire broke out on a Navy cargo vessel associated with the pier mission that was transiting to the region, forcing it to return to Florida with one working engine. No injuries were reported, officials said.

The unpredictability of the U.S. pier has complicated humanitarian efforts by those looking to help Gazan civilians.

Amed Khan, a philanthropist who has been sending aid to Gaza, said he decided to try to send supplies to the enclave through the U.S. pier — on what is known as the Cyprus Maritime Corridor — because getting shipments in over land had become nearly impossible.

“One shipment took three months, another took two months — there is no rhyme or reason,” he said, adding that he currently has five trucks with food and medicine stuck in Egypt.

After the Rafah border crossing closed this month, “there’s really no other way to do this,” he said in a telephone interview, referring to the maritime corridor. He applied for, and quickly received, United Nations approval to send medicine and medical supplies to Gaza by sea, and he was waiting for Israeli approval when news came Tuesday that the United States had suspended the maritime route.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said Tuesday that they are grateful that United States built the floating pier, but it “cannot replace” opening land crossings. While about 97 trucks of aid have come over the pier, Dujarric said, “it’s just a small add to what we actually need.”

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Missy Ryan and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.