US to deploy 1,000 troops to build Gaza port
We have more details from the Pentagon on its plans for a floating port in Gaza. Major General Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters in Washington, DC, that the US military plans to deploy 1,000 troops to transport and build the port.
Planning for the port system is still in its early stages, Ryder said, adding that it could take up to 60 days to make the plan a reality.
The port system involves two separate components, he said, the first being the construction of a floating, offshore barge that would be able to accept aid deliveries. The US military would then move aid from there to a floating, 1,800-foot-long (550-metre) causeway anchored to the shore.
Ryder said no US troops would enter Gaza, even temporarily, to complete port construction, adding that details about who will be taking the supplies ashore from the causeway are still being worked out.
US port plan ‘a ruse most of the world can see through’
Rami Khouri, from the American University of Beirut, challenged the US plan to build a port to receive desperately needed humanitarian relief.
“It certainly is a public relations exercise, but it also has many complex dimensions – only a few of which are noble and the rest probably pretty sinister,” he told Al Jazeera. “The problem is the people of Gaza are starving because of policies of the US government, European governments, and others, which is to allow Israel to make them starve.”
Khouri added the plan “is a ruse most of the world can see through” and could give Israel even tighter control over what gets into the Strip in the future while completing “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”. “I’m just waiting for the day the Israelis come and bomb the port because they’ve bombed everything else that the EU and other donors have funded in the occupied territories.”
Houthi leader raises questions over US port plan for Gaza
A top Houthi official questioned the details and goals of the US plan to build a temporary port to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Houthi revolutionary committee leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi noted in a post on X it remains unclear whether the 1,000 US troops the Pentagon says constructing the port will serve as builders or protection for builders.
“The Rafah crossing does not need to be built, aid is piling up in front of it, and the only thing that is required is guidance to bring it in,” he said.
Israel will use the “weeks” the US and others say is needed to build it to further use starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. He said Washington is only trying to maintain a “guise of humanity” with its support for the port.
Biden’s maritime aid plan a ‘glaring distraction’, MSF says
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has blasted the Biden administration’s plans to deliver aid to Gaza by sea as a “glaring distraction” from Israeli’s “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” military assault on the enclave.
“The food, the water and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border. Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies,” Avril Benoit, executive director of MSF USA, said in a post on X.
“This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.”
On 7 March, US President Biden announced plans for the US military to build a temporary pier on the coast of #Gaza, in the Mediterranean Sea, to help deliver humanitarian aid. @avrilbenoit, Executive Director of @MSF_USA, responds to this announcement. pic.twitter.com/xUdyilHazQ
— MSF International (@MSF) March 8, 2024
Maritime aid plan ‘too little, too late,’ former US aid offical says
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, has welcomed Biden’s plan to deliver aid to Gaza by sea welcome, but said it was “too little, too late”.
“Large-scale famine mortality is about to begin. Biden is still way behind the curve and unwilling to take the steps needed to avert that,” Konyndyk, a former disaster relief official in the Biden and Obama administrations, said in a post on X.
Maritime aid plan announced in #SOTU last night is welcome, but too little too late given that famine is taking hold.
Large scale famine mortality is about to begin. Biden is still way behind the curve and unwilling to take the steps needed to avert that.https://t.co/YmzRa1HlNl
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) March 8, 2024
Deadly airdrop accident shows urgent need for ceasefire: UN
The United Nations says the deadly airdrop on Gaza highlights the need for unfettered access by land routes for aid delivery.
“We’re extremely saddened by the reports of people who have been killed during airdrops… This should be a reminder of why we need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, why we need more access by road, why we need better coordination with the Israeli authorities and better deconfliction,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said.
“[The] tragic accident is a symptom of the fact that we do not have an environment in which we can do large-scale, predictable humanitarian delivery.”
NGOs blast Israel over halt in visa renewals for aid workers
Israel’s decision to halt visa renewals for international aid workers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is disrupting humanitarian outreach efforts just when they are most vital, a coalition of humanitarian and nongovernmental groups has said. Israel’s welfare ministry paused visa renewals last month after saying it did not have the resources to probe applicants’ potential links to armed groups.
Faris Arouri, the director of the coalition, said that at least 99 humanitarian workers have seen their visas expire or have visas that will expire in the next six months. “These are people who are known to Israel, who have been screened before,” Arouri was quoted as telling the Associated Press.
“We see this visa ban as part of the collective punishment that the Palestinians have been facing since October 7. This is part and parcel of Israel’s attempt to block the world from really seeing what’s happening on the ground and to block aid from entering.”
‘When is enough enough?’: WHO chief reiterates call for ceasefire
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), has reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, condemning what he called a “full five months of hellish conditions” in the Palestinian enclave.
“Almost 31,000 people have lost their lives, 72,000+ have been injured, thousands are missing,” he wrote in a post on X
“406 attacks on health care, 118 health workers are in detention, 1 in 3 hospitals is only partially or minimally functional,” he noted.
“When is enough enough?” he asked.
When is enough enough?
A full 5 months of hellish conditions in #Gaza:
Almost 31,000 people have lost their lives, 72,000+ have been injured, thousands are missing
406 attacks on health care
118 health workers are in detention
1 in 3 hospitals is only partially or minimally… pic.twitter.com/tcpFNF0217
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 8, 2024
