American troops did not enter Palestinian territory as the dock was installed, the Pentagon has said
The US military has completed work on a temporary pier to allow additional aid deliveries into Gaza, the Pentagon announced in a statement on Thursday. Meanwhile, the flow of aid into the besieged enclave is still being throttled by Israel’s refusal to open border checkpoints.
The pier was anchored to the beach in Gaza on Thursday morning, US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.
“As part of this effort, no US troops entered Gaza,” the statement read. “Trucks carrying humanitarian assistance are expected to begin moving ashore in the coming days. The United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution into Gaza.”
The pier was towed to Gaza from the Israeli port of Ashdod, around 30km north of the enclave. Construction on the project began almost two months ago, and the pier was originally scheduled to be in place at the beginning of this month, before inclement weather postponed the towing operation.
URGENT: The #US military has completed the installation of #Gaza pier; with aid deliveries expected to start within days. pic.twitter.com/cYqKqxJ8l8
— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) May 16, 2024
Aid arriving by sea will first be transferred from large ships to smaller vessels at a different offshore jetty, before being ferried to the pier and loaded onto trucks. From there, UN staff will transport the goods into Gaza for distribution. Hundreds of tons of aid currently sitting in Cyprus will arrive on the pier within days, US Agency for International Development (USAID) official Dan Dieckhaus told reporters on Wednesday.