US removes Gaza aid pier with no plans to reinstall it

It is the third time the structure has been dismantled because of weather concerns

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The US military on Saturday said its temporary pier was removed from the coast of Gaza and sent back to the Israeli port of Ashdod because of bad weather and heavy tides.

Officials said Washington may not reinstall it unless aid deliveries – which had been paused because of security concerns – resume.

It is the third time the pier has been detached from the shore because of weather conditions and the Pentagon has said there is no planned date for its reconnection.

“I don’t have a date of when the pier will be reinstalled,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters on Friday. She said aid was still sitting in a storage yard amid warnings by humanitarian groups of famine in Gaza.

The pier was first anchored to the Gaza coast in mid-May, but was damaged by bad weather later in the month and had to be removed for repairs.

It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod on June 14 to protect it from high seas – a situation that is now being repeated.

The US Central Command said in a statement on Saturday that since May 17, more than 8,831 metric tonnes of aid have been delivered to the people of Gaza by humanitarian organisations.

“In the last week alone, more than 10 million pounds of aid was delivered to Gaza by the temporary pier, providing the second-highest volume of aid in all crossings,” it said.

The UN, which has the widest reach in delivering aid to starving Palestinians, has not been distributing food and other emergency supplies arriving through the pier since June 9.

UN World Food Programme spokesman Steve Taravella said on Friday that the UN participation in the pier project is on pause pending resolution of the security concerns.

It is unclear if the pier will be reattached to the shore.

“When the commander decides that it is the right time to reinstall that pier, we’ll keep you updated on that,” Ms Singh said.

US officials told AP that there were no plans under way to return the pier to Gaza.

Aid deliveries across the pier were halted after the Israeli military used a nearby area to fly out hostages after rescuing them in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians, prompting a UN security review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have compromised.

The Israeli military continued attacks on Gaza on Saturday, killing several Palestinians, Wafa news agency reported.

Eight people, including children and women, were killed and others injured in two air strikes on two houses in the Sabra and Daraj neighbourhoods in Gaza city.

A number of people were also killed and others injured in a drone attack in Sabra, Wafa reported. Several others were killed in air strikes in the centre of the city.