A U.S. Army ship loaded with materials to construct a temporary pier was en route to Gaza on Sunday - but it could be months before desperately needed humanitarian aid actually begins to arrive at the installation, according to reports.
During his State of the Union address on Thursday, President Biden said that the U.S. would build the floating harbor to facilitate the flow of food, water, medicine and other essentials to the war-torn strip.
The ship, the General Frank S. Besson, left a base in Virginia on Saturday, outlets including the Associated Press reported.
But the Pentagon has said that it could take up to 60 days to build the pier, according to the BBC.
The U.S. and allied nations recently began airdropping supplies into Gaza, but international charities and humanitarian groups say that the efforts fall short, with many in the strip already struggling with hunger.
The flow of supplies - and people - in and out of Gaza has been tightly restricted since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
The war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, which saw approximately 1,200 people killed and another 250 abducted back to Gaza.
Israel has responded with a large-scale air and land campaign that, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, has left some 30,000 people dead.
In both Israel and Gaza, civilians represent the majority of those killed.
Biden has sought to balance U.S. support of Israel with increasingly pointed calls for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and allow the reliable flow of essentials into the strip.
