Washington- The US administration was subjected to great embarrassment when the Pentagon was forced to suspend the entry of relief aid into the Gaza Strip due to the collapse of part of the floating dock built by the US army off the coast of the besieged Strip.
Pentagon data indicated that bad weather and high waves in the eastern Mediterranean caused parts of the floating dock to collapse, and the separation of 4 American warships that were used to stabilize it.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, a former American military official stated that “the Pentagon’s policies were the direct cause of this resounding scandal.”
Just add
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said last Tuesday that they are “grateful that the United States built the floating dock, but it cannot replace the opening of land crossings.”
He said that about 97 trucks loaded with aid entered through the pier, which is “just a small addition to what we already need.”
How did we get to this point?
Since the start of its aggression against Gaza following Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, Israel has controlled the process of bringing humanitarian aid into the Strip through land crossings.
With the occupation obstructing its entry, the United States first resorted to air drops of aid, which did not prove successful, and then to the idea of a temporary port and naval pier.
The pier took two months to build at a cost of $320 million, and nearly a thousand American soldiers participated in its construction. The port consists of two parts:
- A double-lane bridge located on the beach, installed by the US Army, and a dirt pier on the shores of Gaza.
- The second part is a platform at sea, 5 kilometers from the Gaza coast. It is 270 feet long and 72 feet wide. It is designated for receiving and unloading the cargo of large ships that cannot reach the shallow waters near the shore. This mechanism was used for only a week before parts of it collapsed.
A statement issued by the Pentagon, last Tuesday, stated that “four US Army ships supporting the maritime humanitarian aid mission in Gaza were affected by rough sea conditions on Saturday, May 25, which led to the movement of parts used to stabilize the pier from their moorings due to a power outage and then.” Stay away from the beach.”
The same statement added, “Within the next 48 hours, the pier will be removed from its anchored location on the coast and towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the US Central Command will carry out repairs. The process of rebuilding and repairing it will take at least more than a week, and it will be necessary, after its completion, to reconstruct it.” Anchoring it on the coast of Gaza.
Austerity policies
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, defense affairs expert Michael Beck said that with a temporary dock, there is always a risk of damage from bad weather. It is not a substitute for the necessity of a permanent port, nor is it a reliable alternative for aid convoys via land routes.
In his opinion, it is much better than air supplies. He added that “fortunately” these temporary structures were designed to be repaired fairly quickly. “It is ironic that the sidewalk is being repaired in Israel.”
Reports indicated that among the four stabilization ships that separated earlier this week, two of them floated north and landed on a beach in the port of Ashdod, while the other two ships are still anchored on the beach near the pier off the Gaza Strip.
The temporary dock requires very good sea conditions to operate. It can only be operated safely in waves no higher than a maximum of 3 feet and winds less than approximately 15 mph.
For his part, David De Roche, a professor of security studies at the Pentagon’s National Defense University and a former NATO official, says that the destruction of the pier is a direct result of some misguided cost-cutting measures by the US military under the leadership of former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and President Former Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, De Roches accused the most senior military official in the administration of former President Donald Trump of indirectly causing what he considered a “big scandal.”
Expensive method
According to Academician Des Roches, the former officials took the initiative to discuss how to reduce the budget, programs and equipment of the ground forces, and decided to reduce their numbers. Among these reductions were sea vessels belonging to the ground forces.
He added that they kept these joint logistics onshore (4 of which were used at the Gaza pier) and some landing ships, but they got rid of the tugs and other large ships needed to move the equipment and put it in place.
According to De Roches, the task of building the pier could have been assigned to the US Navy. “We had these necessary capabilities without the need for installation equipment to deal with bad weather situations,” he said.
It is likely that the introduction of aid in this way will not have a significant impact on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but rather it will be vulnerable (once it reaches the Strip) to fall into the hands of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
He believes that it is a very expensive way to transport goods to Gaza, “and it would be more profitable to transport them by truck through the border crossings, which could be under the supervision of the Israeli side.”
It is noteworthy that 5 years ago, Congress asked the US Ground Forces to halt its plans to reduce the numbers of its huge naval vessels of amphibious landing ships, landing craft, and a variety of other naval assets, which are also referred to as the “Navy Land Forces.”
This came after the USAV SSGT Robert T. Kuroda-class logistics support ship was put up for sale, and after a temporary removal from the Department of Defense’s General Services Administration auction site, ships and naval assets belonging to the ground forces have returned. It has once again been put up for sale, indicating that liquidation plans are proceeding at least as previously planned.