8/5/2024–|Last updated: 5/8/202409:47 AM (Mecca time)
The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced that the US military has completed the construction of the floating port off Gaza, noting that current weather conditions “do not allow” the two-part facility to be safely moved to its designated location.
Sabrina Singh, deputy spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense, said in a statement to reporters yesterday, Tuesday, that the construction of the floating port with both parts has been completed, awaiting their transfer to the specified location opposite Gaza, stressing that the US Central Command is “ready to move the port to its location in the near future.”
She added, “Forecast still predicts expected strong winds and high sea waves, which will cause unsafe conditions for transporting the components of the floating port. Therefore, sections of the port and military ships participating in its construction are still in the port of Ashdod” in southern Israel.
This comes after the US Army announced last Friday that its forces had moved the floating port construction site to the port of Ashdod “due to strong waves and winds.”
The presentation of the US military’s plan to create a floating dock, which President Joe Biden announced in early March, came days after the United States began airdropping aid into Gaza, in what it describes as helping the population in light of Israel’s obstruction of the delivery of aid by land and its ongoing siege of the area. sector.
The floating port, which the United States began building last month, at a cost of $320 million – according to estimates reported by Agence France-Presse – aims to deliver more humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, devastated by the ongoing Israeli war for the 215th day, which has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded amid a worsening famine. .