The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) acknowledged that an area “close” to the American floating pier off the coast of Gaza was used in the operation carried out by the Israeli occupation forces to recover 4 prisoners, but the ministry denied using the pier itself in the operation.
On Monday, the Pentagon tried to dispel what it said were “misperceptions” that Israel organized part of the operation through this pier, which the United States says it established to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, but Palestinian and international bodies questioned its feasibility and motives from the beginning.
Pentagon spokesman General Patrick Ryder said that the pier was not used in the Israeli operation in any way, and he also denied the participation of any American personnel in the operation.
“accidental”
But Ryder acknowledged that Israeli helicopters were flying in an area “close” to the pier, as he put it, and said that this was a “coincidence.”
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces recovered 4 prisoners from the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, through a military operation that led to the death of 274 Palestinians and the injury of about 700 others, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
Reports stated that Israeli forces entered the area disguised inside aid trucks through the American naval pier area.
A Pentagon spokesman said today that no humanitarian aid has arrived in Gaza via the floating dock since the day before yesterday, Saturday, due to the sea condition.
Temporary suspension of shipments
On the other hand, the government media office in Gaza said that the World Food Program stopping the entry of aid through the American dock confirms its futility.
The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, confirmed on Monday that this pier “did not really alleviate the disastrous humanitarian reality” in the Strip since its establishment, and that the number of aid trucks that passed through it did not exceed 120.
This came in a press statement by Marouf, after the World Food Program announced that it would stop bringing aid into Gaza through the American floating dock due to “security concerns” in light of the Nuseirat camp massacre.
The Director of the United Nations Program, Cindy McCain, announced a temporary suspension of the distribution of humanitarian aid through the American pier off the coast of Gaza, noting during an interview with the American CBS network that two of the organization’s warehouses in Gaza were bombed during the process of retrieving prisoners, resulting in An employee was injured.
On March 7, US President Joe Biden ordered his country’s forces to establish this temporary dock on the Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aid.
The American move was met with skepticism and criticism from experts in humanitarian work and officials in international organizations, who said that this project distracts attention from the real crisis in Gaza, and may have ulterior motives.
