Severe weather shuts down Gaza aid pier

Rebuilding the pier will take more than a week after storms damaged sections of the pier, U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday. Repairing the damage will require removing the pier from the coast of Gaza and towing it to the Israeli port at Ashdod, Singh said. U.S. forces are expected to complete the process of moving the pier over the next two days.

What happened? The storm damage occurred on Saturday and broke off four sections of the pier—made up of motorized vessels—and drove them into beaches along the coasts of Israel and Gaza. Only one of the four missing sections of the pier has been recovered. The others are expected to be recovered in the next two days.

Will the pier go back into operation after the repairs? Once the repairs are complete, U.S. forces plan to re-anchor the pier to the coast of Gaza and continue funneling aid through it to Palestinian people in the region, Singh said.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how some aid trucks that came off the pier got mobbed almost immediately by Palestinians before they could drive to their destinations.