The US plan to build a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to step up the delivery of humanitarian aid has been criticized as an attempt to distract from the hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians and the ongoing blockade of the aid to the enclave by Israel.
US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address on Thursday that he was ordering the US military to lead an emergency mission to set up a dock off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter.
The planning of the operation, initially based on the island of Cyprus, does not envisage the deployment of American military personnel to Gaza.
“No American army will be on the ground,” Biden said.
Although the Biden administration has increasingly criticized Israel’s harsh restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by land – prompting the US to airdrop 36,000 meals into northern Gaza Gaza – it continues to supply weapons to the Israeli army and remains a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden gave few logistical details, but U.S. officials said the operation “would take several weeks to plan and execute” and that the necessary U.S. forces are in the region or would soon begin moving there. Washington would also coordinate with the Israeli military regarding the security situation on the Gaza coast, they said.
The Gaza port project, a “distraction”
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Tel Aviv Tribune on Friday that the plan to build a port in Gaza “is not a new idea.”
“This appears to be just another attempt to distract from the real problem, which is that 700,000 people are starving in northern Gaza, and Israel is not allowing humanitarian aid to these people or to rest of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Large amounts of aid are waiting to arrive in the enclave on Gaza’s border with Egypt, Barghouti said, adding that “the international community is doing nothing to pressure Israel to end this blockade.”
Tel Aviv Tribune senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said Biden’s announcement distracted from Washington’s continued support for Israel.
“I think a statement like that in the State of the Union address is more theatrical and more public relations… than it is a sincere attempt to end the suffering in Gaza ” said Bishara.
Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Biden’s focus on foreign policy – particularly the war in Gaza – in his speech was also “an attempt to fundamentally reaffirm his support for Israel, first, and he tries to assuage some of the criticism he receives from members of his own party about the American response to Gaza.
He added that the way Biden framed the war by “adopting the Israeli line that everything they do, the genocide, the massacres, is a response to October 7” sent a clear message that the United States United remained firmly on Israel’s side, despite their commitment. expressed frustration at the lack of aid arriving in Gaza.
There is no substitute for delivering aid by land
Sigrid Kaag, UN coordinator for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in Gaza, welcomed US plans to provide maritime access for the delivery of aid to Gaza.
“At the same time, I can only repeat: air and sea do not replace land, and no one says otherwise,” Kaag told reporters Thursday after a briefing to the U.N. Security Council.
A spokesperson for the UN agency for the Palestinians said this week that “the easiest way to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip is to use existing crossing points, namely Karem Abu Salem (called Kerem Shalom by Israel) and Rafah from Egypt.”
Tamara Alrifai told Tel Aviv Tribune that existing land crossings are “faster, safer and more economical” than a sea route and airdrop attempts.
“Why should we reinvent the wheel? Let’s use what exists and what has worked before,” Alrifai said, stressing that there are “constant demands for a ceasefire that would allow an influx of humanitarian aid.”
Melanie Ward, chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, told Tel Aviv Tribune: “Airdrops, temporary seaports and the like are not realistic or sustainable solutions to stave off impending famine and sustain life in Gaza. »
“Five months later, it is high time for the United States, the United Kingdom and others to use their substantial weight to ensure that their ally Israel immediately reopens the land crossings into Gaza,” he said. -she declared on Friday.
“Only an immediate and lasting ceasefire will allow us to deliver the massive humanitarian response required after five months of indiscriminate bombing and siege of the people of Gaza by Israel,” Ward said.
Since 1967, Israel has exercised total control over Gaza’s coastline and territorial waters, preventing ships from reaching the strip.
Since 2007, Israel has closed almost all of Gaza’s border crossings and its port is subject to an Israeli naval blockade, making it the only seaport in the Mediterranean closed to shipping.
After Israel launched its war against the enclave, it only allowed an influx of aid via the Karem Abu Salem crossing and the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Israeli forces also targeted Palestinians awaiting food aid. On February 29, at least 112 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 injured after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds of families waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City.