By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army announced Saturday that the US is continuing to construct a temporary floating pier on the shores of the Gaza Strip, covering an area estimated to be 67 acres.
“The temporary floating pier, through which the humanitarian aid will be transferred, is being built by the U.S. and will be connected to the Gaza shore,” the army said in a statement on X.
A US military ship was anchored Friday off the coast of Gazac that is expected to participate in the construction of the floating maritime pier. Washington announced a plan to build the pier under the pretext of providing humanitarian aid, according to Anadolu.
US President Joe Biden announced on March 7 that the army would build a temporary port on the Gaza coast to deliver more humanitarian aid.
The army clarified that the pier aims to directly receive humanitarian aid in Gaza.
It pointed out that “the area of the project covers around 67 acres which are allocated for the operation and the passage of large amounts of goods to the field.”
The army posted a short video on X showing the construction of the pier.
According to local Palestinian sources, the pier is made from the rubble of houses destroyed by Israel during the ongoing conflict for more than half a year. Its mission will be to receive shipments of aid delivered by ships to the US port.
Since March 15, two aid ships have arrived off the coast of Gaza from Cyprus, and their cargo was unloaded via rafts, which transported the crates to the concrete pier.
The international charity organization, Central World Kitchen, worked on receiving the aid and redistributing it to the residents of the enclave who are suffering from famine due to Israel's restrictions on the entry of food and humanitarian aid through land crossings.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.
Nearly 34,400 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 77,400 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala