US military ship heads to Gaza to build temporary humanitarian aid port
Al Jazeera
Critics of pier plan for aid delivery by sea demand Israel open land crossings as Gaza humanitarian crisis deteriorates.
The United States military has dispatched a ship carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies by sea amid increasing numbers of Palestinians dying of starvation and a widening famine as Israel obstructs aid operations.
The vessel, General Frank S Besson, left a Virginia base “less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the US would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea,” the military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday.
The logistics support vessel is “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies”, it said.
US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union speech on Thursday that he was directing the military to lead an emergency mission to set up a pier off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.
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