It's official now, Biden's pier is done
US military ends Gaza pier mission
The US military’s much-criticised $230m floating aid pier off the coast of Gaza is being shut down, only two months since it became operational.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete, so there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
While the pier has brought in 8,100 metric tonnes of aid to a marshalling area on Gaza’s shore since it started operating in May, the 370m (1,200-foot) floating pier has had to be removed multiple times because of bad weather. It only operated for about 20 days in total, and is currently in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Many aid groups have said that while any amount of food for Gaza is welcome, the project has been a costly distraction, and the US should concentrate on pressuring Israel to allow more aid through land borders, which have long been considered the most productive option.
As I calculated before, the 8,100 tonnes (405 trucks) cost close to twice as much as air drops per ton. Over 28K per ton (compared to 16K per ton for air drops, 180 dollars per ton for trucks)
Gaza aid pier ‘a failure’, says former US aid official
The former US aid director for the West Bank and Gaza, Dave Harden, said that the now-closed pier was “interesting in theory, but in practice, an absolute failure – and my concern is who will be held accountable?”
“The pier, in concept, was an interesting idea from my perspective, because it created some potential facts on the ground so that the Gazans for once could actually have something in their favour where they could import basic commodities, either now or in the future,” said Harden, who is now the managing director of Georgetown Strategy Group.
“What we have not seen is a robust opening of the crossings … I think this goes first to the Israelis, and second to the Americans,” Harden added. “And in the meantime, the Gazans themselves continue to suffer. This was a tragedy compounding a tragedy.”
