WORLD
Gaza pier: US begins building floating base to boost aid
Baku, April 26, AZERTAC
The US military has started building a large floating pier off Gaza's coast to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, BBC News reports citing the defence department.
Ships will deliver aid from Cyprus to the pier where it will be loaded onto trucks to transfer across Gaza.
The pier will be attached to the shore by a temporary causeway, which the trucks will use.
US officials say the pier will be operational by early May but there will be no US boots on the ground in Gaza.
The plan was first announced by President Joe Biden in March as part of efforts to tackle hunger in Gaza compounded by problems with aid deliveries.
More than 1,000 US troops are expected to be involved in building the floating harbour, but the Pentagon made clear from the start that the workers would not set foot on land.
The causeway will be assembled at sea, allowing US forces to avoid stepping onto the ground.
And a British naval vessel in the eastern Mediterranean will be a floating dormitory for the American soldiers and sailors. They will live and sleep aboard RFA [Royal Fleet Auxiliary] Cardigan Bay.
A Pentagon spokesperson, Major General Pat Ryder, told a news conference on Thursday: "US military vessels... have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea."
He said that the causeway would connect to the temporary pier, "which is out at sea, and the causeway which eventually will join land and be anchored, so to speak."
The US says that once the system is operational, up to 150 trucks of aid could be delivered a day with two million meals, enough to feed almost all of the territory's 2.3 million population.
The World Food Programme has agreed to lead the delivery operation, but the UN agency said Israel must ensure that aid workers are not harmed.