US shows reporters Gaza pier project as it tries again to deliver aid

With U.S. soldiers within shouting distance of Gaza’s coast, the American military is taking another stab at delivering aid to Palestinians by sea.

After several fits and starts, a $230 million pier is up and running again. The U.S. military invited reporters for a tour of it on Tuesday, marking the first time international media has witnessed its operations firsthand.

International journalists have not been allowed to enter Gaza independently since the Israel-Hamas war began Oct. 7, after a Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel.

The project, which first launched in mid-May, resumed operations last week after a recent pause due to rough seas.

As journalists looked on Tuesday, U.S. soldiers with machine guns directed the pier’s operations. U.S. vessels carrying trucks loaded with humanitarian aid docked at the pier.

Israeli and Cypriot drivers drove the trucks off the vessels and headed down the 400-meter causeway to the beach, where they unloaded pallets of aid.

The trucks then returned to the vessels to be ferried to large cargo ships and reloaded. The cargo ships travel across the Mediterranean Sea from Cyprus.

Col. Samuel Miller, the commander of a joint task force, U.S. Army 7th Transportation Brigade, said the vessels can ferry aid to the pier at least five times a day.

“Our mission out here is to receive those humanitarian assistance pallets offshore from a larger vessel onto that floating pier,” he said. “Over time, we are learning organization and we’ve gotten better.”

The floating pier was anchored back on Gaza’s shoreline on June 19 after heavy seas and high winds led the military to disconnect it from the beach. In May, similar conditions forced a two-week pause in operations after the pier broke apart and four U.S. Army vessels ran aground, injuring three service members, one critically.

Since coming back online, the pier has been delivering hundreds of pallets of aid a day to the shore, Miller said. The U.S. military said about 6,800 tons of aid have so far been delivered from the project to Gaza’s shore.

While aid from the pier is reaching the beach, it’s still difficult to get it to Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.N. World Food Program has suspended aid delivery from the pier due to security concerns after the Israeli military appeared to use the area in a June 8 hostage rescue. Lawlessness around the pier, with Palestinians seizing aid off trucks headed to delivery zones, also is a major concern.

U.N. and other international aid officials have voiced skepticism over the pier, saying its effectiveness is limited and it is no substitute for Israeli-controlled land crossings into the territory.