The United States Navy has sent the Bob Hope-class merchant vessel Roy P. Benavidez to the Mediterranean to haul construction materials and equipment to build a pier off the coast of Gaza in a bid to get more humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal strip.
According to The Hill, the Benavidez, a member of the US Department of Transportation's reserve fleet, was manned by the Navy's Military Sealift Command for the mission.
She recently left Newport News, Virginia, to deliver materials to the US Army's 7th Transportation Brigade, which went to Gaza earlier this month.
Previously, the NGOs Proactiva Open Arms and the World Central Kitchen have delivered around 200 tons of food and other humanitarian aid to Gaza through a new sea route plotted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Army Lt. Gen. John P. Sullivan, deputy commander of U.S. Transportation Command, said that the floating pier they are constructing - called a Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) system - "is a critical capability that allows ship-to-shore cargo distribution in the absence of a usable pier."
"It can be used to augment an established port or to create a pier where one is needed, and allows us to support areas where large populations are isolated from food, water, and other forms of humanitarian aid," the general said in a statement.
On the other hand, US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Kurilla said during a House Armed Services hearing on Thursday (Mar. 21) that the floating pier would be out at sea and another pier would connect to the beach of Gaza through Army watercraft, adding that the ships required for the mission should be in place soon.
He told lawmakers that "all that should be arriving in the theater in the first couple of weeks of April."
Read Also : Israel Asks World Court To Dismiss South Africa's Request for New Measures Over Famine in Gaza
Meanwhile, the Defense Department said that the construction of the pier could take up to two months, with Reuters quoting a US official as saying that they aim to have the pier ready before May 1.
"The US military is doing everything they can to accelerate the deployment of this capability and make it operational prior to the May 1 target date that they've set," National Security Council Chief of Staff Curtis Ried told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Cyprus. They are working very hard to advance that, and hopefully, we can see it operational a bit earlier than that."
Asked about how the operation would work within Gaza, Ried explained that there was no plan for American personnel to go ashore as Israel would play an important role in securing a broad area. He added that the US's role in the operation was talking to "a number of countries" about potentially serving as a security partner within the perimeter compound secured by the Israelis.
From there, aid would likely be distributed by a UN agency, and that the UN Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) would continue to be used in the foreseeable future.
