A temporary humanitarian aid dock set up by the US military on the Gaza Strip coast will soon be shut down completely, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
The pier broke off and was badly damaged by rough seas in June. The pier was towed to Ashdod on the Israeli coast.
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said Thursday that U.S. troops tried unsuccessfully to re-anchor the pier to the beach in Gaza on Wednesday, but were unable to do so due to technical and weather-related problems.
“The pier will be closed shortly. More details on this process and timing will be available soon,” Ryder said.
Ryder’s comments left open whether the temporary pier could be used again before operations ceased completely, saying only that no date had been set for another attempt at anchoring.
Ryder stressed that “the pier was always intended as an interim solution to enable the additional flow of aid into Gaza during a period of dire humanitarian need, with limited access, complementing the land and air delivery channels.”
Originally, there were plans to build the pier using cargo ships to bring aid from Cyprus to a floating platform a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip coast. There, the supplies would be loaded onto smaller ships that could sail closer to shore and dock at the pier.
There the deliveries are received and distributed by aid organizations.
The operation has been plagued by problems since it began in May.