The US military stated on Friday that the American pier that is currently being used to transport goods to Gaza will be temporarily relocated to an Israeli port in order to shield it from impending high waves.
The pier was damaged by a storm in May and needed repairs at Ashdod. It was only reattached to the Gaza shoreline a week ago. It will return there to avoid the current terrible weather.
“Today, due to expected high seas, the temporary pier will be removed from its anchored position in Gaza and towed back to Ashdod, Israel,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a social media post.
“The safety of our service members is a top priority and temporarily relocating the pier will prevent structural damage caused by the heightened sea state,” it said.
After the sea calms, CENTCOM said, aid deliveries via the pier, which have already reached over 3,500 metric tons (7.7 million pounds), will resume.
Aid deliveries were halted by high seas for two days beginning last Saturday, but on Tuesday they were able to resume since the pier did not need to be cut off from the coast.
The distribution of goods arriving via the dock has been suspended by the UN World Food Programme in an attempt to evaluate the security situation, posing a more significant hurdle to efforts to provide relief by sea.
The action was taken in response to an Israeli military assault in the area that rescued four hostages but, according to Gaza’s health ministry, killed at least 274 Palestinians. The operation was led by Hamas.
A war has broken out in Gaza as a result of Hamas’s historic onslaught on Israel on October 7, which claimed 1,194 lives, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli government statistics.
251 captives were also taken by the militants. Out of them, 116 are still in Gaza, despite the army claiming 41 had died.
The health ministry of Gaza reports that at least 37,266 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory offensive, the majority of whom were civilians.
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