The temporary pier being constructed by the US military to boost aid deliveries to Gaza will cost Washington at least US$320 million, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“That’s about our rough estimate right now, approximately US$320 million,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, adding: “That’s an initial cost for the temporary pier.”
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that construction of the pier had begun, saying it should be operational in early May.
At that point, aid will be transported via commercial vessels to a floating platform miles off the Gaza coast, where it will be transferred to smaller vessels, brought to the pier and taken to land by truck for distribution.
Satellite photos analysed on Monday by Associated Press show the USNS Roy P Benavidez about 8km (5 miles) from the port on shore, where the base of operations for the project is being built by the Israeli military. The USAV General Frank S Besson Jnr, an army logistics vessel, and several other US Army boats are with the Benavidez and working on the construction of what the military calls the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, system.
A satellite image from Sunday by Planet Labs PBC showed pieces of the floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea alongside the Benavidez. Measurements of the vessel match known features of the Benavidez, a Bob Hope-class vehicle cargo ship operated by the Military Sealift Command.
The US military official said on of its engineering units has teamed with an IDF engineering unit in recent weeks to practice the installation of the causeway, training on an Israeli beach just up the coast.
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The new port sits just southwest of Gaza City, a bit north of a road bisecting Gaza that the Israeli military built during the current fighting against Hamas. The area was the territory’s most populous before the Israeli ground offensive rolled through and pushed more than 1 million people south toward the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
Now Israeli military positions sit on either side of the port, which initially had been built, as part of an effort led by World Central Kitchen, out of the rubble of buildings levelled by Israel. That effort halted after an Israeli air strike killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1 as they travelled in clearly marked vehicles on a delivery mission authorised by Israel. The organisation says it is resuming its work in Gaza.
Aid has been slow to get into Gaza, with long backups of trucks awaiting Israeli inspections. The US and other nations also have used air drops to send food into Gaza. The US military official said deliveries on the sea route initially will total about 90 trucks a day and could quickly increase to about 150 trucks daily.
Aid organisations have said several hundred such trucks are needed to enter Gaza every day.
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Home to 2.3 million people, Gaza has found itself on the precipice of famine. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began, local health authorities say.
Additional reporting by Associated Press