The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) considered the operation of the floating port established by the United States on the coast of Gaza to be a consecration of the occupation, at a time when the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) rejected any military presence.
Fatah movement spokesman Abdel Fattah Dawla said that operating the American pier under the occupation’s control over the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side is a consecration of the occupation of the crossing and a complete isolation of the Gaza Strip.
The day before yesterday, Friday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the movement of the first humanitarian aid trucks across the floating dock into the Gaza Strip.
Fatah spokesman considered that Washington, with this operation, was creating alternatives for the occupation to continue its attack on Rafah and gain full control over the Gaza Strip.
He continued that the most effective options for providing relief to the Gaza Strip are to stop the aggression and the bloodshed, and not to control the Rafah crossing, which constitutes the main aid gateway and the most operational compared to the floating port.
The Fatah spokesman called on the Palestinians in Gaza not to treat this port as anything more than a corridor for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and to be alert to any attempt that might push towards using it as a crossing point to displace them under any pretext, forced, voluntary, or humanitarian.
Hamas statement
The day before yesterday, Friday, Hamas had stressed the need for the floating water dock not to be an alternative to opening all land crossings.
The movement said, in a statement, that any route to bring in aid, including the water terminal, is not an alternative to opening all land crossings under Palestinian supervision, stressing its rejection of any military presence of any force on our Palestinian lands.
Last March, NBC quoted American officials as saying that Israel was considering contracting with private international security companies to secure the delivery of aid in the Gaza Strip via the floating dock.
The residents of the Gaza Strip, especially about two million displaced people, suffer from a severe shortage of food supplies as a result of Israel’s continued closure of the Rafah crossing for the 12th day in a row, and the Kerem Shalom crossing for the 14th in a row, pushing Gaza into the clutches of famine, according to warnings from international humanitarian organizations.
Last Thursday, Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, warned of a complete cessation of relief work in the Strip within two or three days if fuel continues to not enter the Strip.
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, supported militarily, politically, and intelligence by Washington, left more than 114,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel has continued the war since October 7, 2023, despite the issuance of a resolution by the UN Security Council to stop the fighting immediately, and the International Court of Justice demanding that the Israeli occupation take immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
