The assembly of a floating pier to bring relief supplies into Gaza has temporarily been suspended due to conditions in the Mediterranean Sea.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) paused the offshore work on Thursday due to forecasted high winds and high sea swells. It said the conditions were unsafe for soldiers working on the surface of the partially constructed pier.
The pier and military vessels involved in its construction were moved to the Port of Ashdod, where assembly will continue, and will be completed before the pier is placed when the sea calms.
During his State of the Union address, President Biden said that the U.S. would build the floating pier to facilitate the flow of food, water, medicine and other essentials to the war-torn strip.
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. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched attacks following a Hamas operation last October that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and seized hundreds of hostages.
The temporary pier in Gaza will enable the delivery of large quantities of humanitarian aid from ship to shore by truck, with vehicles driving directly off ships and across the temporary pier.
The aid will be shipped in from Cyprus.
More than 1,000 soldiers started working on the pier last month. It is estimated to cost $320 million.
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.
