The US military’s floating pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip was dismantled due to the expected “high sea states”, the Pentagon said on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Now, due to high sea states expected this weekend, Central Command has removed the temporary pier from its anchored position in Gaza and will tow it back to Ashdod, Israel,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary, Sabrina Singh, told reporters.
Temporarily relocating the pier will prevent potential structural damage that could be caused by the heightened sea state, Singh said.
The Commander will continue to assess the sea states over the weekend, she said, adding: “But I don’t have a date of when the pier would be reinstalled.”
More than 8,831 metric tons, or approximately 19.4 million pounds, of humanitarian aid was delivered since the pier became operational on 17 May, Singh said, calling it a “great success”.
US President, Joe Biden, ordered the establishment of a sea route to deliver food and aid to Palestinians on 8 March, amid Israeli restrictions and months of conflict in the enclave.
At max load a truck can carry between 15-20 tonnes. Let’s say 18 tonnes as an average.
8831 tonnes delivered over 40 days (since May 17). That’s 220 tonnes of aid per day (or 11 trucks per day).
According to UNRWA, Gaza needs around 500 trucks of aid per day. That is 9000 tonnes per day (500*18). Or, for those following the math, Gaza needs every day as much aid as the pier “successfully” delivered since its operation in total.
Who in their right mind would call this shameful operation “a great success”?
All these reports and articles attempt to cunningly manipulate the numbers regarding humanitarian aid. They use pounds (here they throw the 19.4 million pounds) or kilograms or pallettes to make it seem like the amount of aid was a lot. In reality, it’s only a very small fraction of what Gaza actually needs. And they never ever say how much Gaza actually needs. They never mention the needs.
Not only that, but they also always talk about the aid reaching the pier, but not what happens afterwards. Never about Israeli settlers hijacking the trucks and destroying their cargo, Israel military confiscating or blocking the aid for arbitrary reasons, or the myriads of issues that occur before even aid is shipped.
And as for “great success”, they don’t even mention that the stated goal of the pier was to reach 200 trucks per day at this point, but they never went further than 12 trucks a day. So even by their standards, this operation has been a massive failure.
And now they are removing it. Because the actual goal of the pier was never to help Palestinians. It was to give the illusion aid for calming down the protests in the West and in the UN. It was to act as a surveillance point on Hamas, and to act as a staging ground for operations, such as the slaughter that was the hostage “rescue” operation recently. And long-term, it was to act as a port to deport Palestinians to Northern Africa and Europe.
Every time I read about this, it angers me to no end. I wonder when will the US empire ever die off. When will they stop hurting people?
This abuse has gone long enough.