End of the Road for $230 Million Gaza Pier

Biden’s Gaza pier is quietly shutting down after barely a month in operation.

The Biden administration’s $230 million Gaza pier, which took months to build and only operated for about 25 days, is being quietly shut down and moved to the Ashdod corridor.  Pier Operations In May, supplies began flowing into Gaza through the pier via Cyprus. Since then, it has delivered the greatest volume of humanitarian aid, nearly 20 million pounds, into the Middle East. (READ MORE: Hezbollah Sets Its Sights on Cyprus) After supplies arrive in Cyprus they are inspected and shipped to a floating platform near the Gaza pier. There, they are loaded onto smaller ships using trucks that then offload onto the floating pier where they disembark onto the shore and go through a second inspection by Israeli forces. Aid is then distributed by humanitarian aid groups or sent to warehouses.   Supplies to feed 450,000 people for one month have flowed off the pier. About 2 million people live in Gaza. The Pier Underperformed The pier faced numerous issues throughout the entire operation which have severely limited operations. One-thousand U.S. soldiers and sailors living on boats off the shore of Gaza have struggled to keep the pier operational. Bad weather and seas delayed the installment of the pier and broke pieces of it, further delaying operations. Weather and choppy seas also forced U.S. soldiers to detach the pier from the shore in Gaza, move it to a safer area, and then reattach it numerous times. The pier hasn’t been in use since June 28 because of bad seas. It was moved to Ashdod, an Israeli port to the north of Gaza, where it has stayed. Security concerns have also plagued the pier. Aid groups became reluctant to distribute supplies brought in through it after the death of several aid workers. Armed Palestinian looters have attacked aid trucks, Israeli airstrikes have hit aid workers, and Israeli troops use a small area near the pier for military operations. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing the aid. Reluctance to distribute the food has led to pile-ups o...