Maxar Technologies
Satellite imagery taken by Maxar Technologies on Tuesday, May 28, showed most of the pontoon dock missing.
CNN
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A temporary US military pier off the coast of Gaza that collapsed and was damaged in heavy seas last week was repaired and reconnected to shore on Friday morning, the deputy commander of US Central Command announced on Friday.
“I am very pleased to report that early this morning in Gaza, U.S. forces successfully installed a temporary pier on Gaza’s shoreline. IDF engineers provided all necessary assistance to safely install the pier on shore,” Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters on Friday. “The U.S. military’s policy of no ground troops remains in effect. We expect to resume deliveries of humanitarian aid by sea in the coming days.”
Earlier, a U.S. defense official said the pier, built by U.S. forces to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, could resume operations as early as Friday, with aid distribution set to resume the next day if all goes according to plan.
“We anticipate the aim will be to put £500,000 on the beach initially, increasing that soon after,” Mr Cooper added.
Rough seas caused the pier to collapse and be damaged last week, dealing a major blow to US-led efforts to create a maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian aid to the war-torn exclave.
The jetty was the culmination of months of efforts by U.S. officials to come up with a way to get aid to Gaza in addition to dropping it from planes and trucking it through border crossings. Though it was only operational for just over a week, it helped deliver about 1,000 tons of aid to Gaza before it collapsed.
The jetty, called Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), requires extremely favorable sea conditions to operate. It is expected to cost about $320 million to build, and although it was only operational on May 17, officials later said the cost was closer to $230 million.
Cooper stressed Friday that the damage to the pier was “completely due to unexpected weather” and that the military would continue to closely monitor the weather.
The JLOTS system consists of two parts: a floating pier to unload cargo and a causeway to transport the cargo to distribution points in the Gaza Strip.
The damage last week came after deliveries were delayed by major obstacles along the route, including Hamas drones and looting, forcing the U.S. military to assist USAID in devising safer alternative routes for trucks to travel from a beach assembly point near the pier to the warehouse.
Until then, the U.S. faced many challenges regarding the pier, including planning for Israeli operations in Rafah, determining who would transport aid from the pier to Gaza, and logistical challenges such as sea and weather conditions.
The construction of the pier comes amid a worsening humanitarian situation and a rising death toll from Israeli bombings in Gaza, where the entire population faces food shortages.
Cooper said Friday that the US has been working with the Jordanian Air Force to carry out several airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, but that these had been suspended in recent weeks due to military operations in the northern part of the strip. He said airdrops were expected to resume in the “next few days.”
Assistant Defence Secretary for International Cooperation Chris Mewet told reporters on Friday that in addition to food, other forms of aid were also being delivered via the jetty.
“I think everyone recognizes that food is just one component, along with housing and health care,” Mewet said.
US officials previously told CNN that the US military is expected to operate the pier for at least three months, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into a full-time commercial facility that can be used by other countries and non-governmental organisations.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
CNN’s Shania Shelton, Jennifer Hansler, Oren Lieberman, Alex Marquardt, Haley Blitzky, Kylie Atwood, Michael Conte and Helen Regan contributed to this report.
