Gaza aid pier not scheduled to be reinstalled, DOD says

The temporary pier U.S. forces have used to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza is not scheduled to go back in place, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Friday. U.S. forces tried to reattach the pier to Gaza’s coast on Wednesday, but weather and environmental conditions thwarted their efforts, Singh said.

So what’s happening with the pier right now? The pier is currently stored at the Israeli port city of Ashdod. U.S. officials have not yet decided when or if to reattach it to the coast of Gaza and it will soon cease operations altogether, Singh said. The pier broke into pieces amid severe weather earlier this year. U.S. forces reattached the pier to the coast of Gaza within a few days. Just recently, U.S. forces removed the pier ahead of more severe weather to protect it from suffering damage. Singh told reporters shortly afterward that the pier would continue operations.

Has the pier been effective while it’s been in place? U.S. soldiers have used the pier to deliver nearly 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Singh said on Friday. That number represents the most aid the U.S. military has ever transported within a three-month window, the Pentagon said in a separate statement Thursday. It’s also the largest humanitarian operation ever in the Middle East, the Pentagon said.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift today featuring Israeli allegations that Hamas has tried to capture and sell humanitarian aid coming into Gaza to civilians in the area.