Amalthea ‘unaffected’ by US pier shutdown

A US decision to shut down the humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza “does not affect the continuation of the Amalthea initiative at all,” government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Friday.

“Let me remind you that when the Amalthea sea corridor was planned, we did not have the US administration’s intention to build a jetty in mind,” he said.

Letymbiotis noted that “the construction of the jetty came after the first implementation of the initiative.”

“The duration of the jetty is not related to the duration of the initiative. There are already alternatives planned for delivering humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza,” he said.

“Let me also remind you that before the jetty was built and during periods of technical problems, the humanitarian aid continued to reach the civilians in Gaza,” the spokesman pointed out.

“This effort is ongoing,” he said, highlighting that an autodiagnostic mobile device was received on Thursday by Italy as part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. This, he added, demonstrates the commitment to strengthening procedures with international support.

“Amalthea is continuing,” he said.

The spokesman noted that the quantity of humanitarian aid reaching the civilians in Gaza had recorded a rapid increase and efforts would be made to maintain this momentum.

Letymbiotis was speaking after a cabinet meeting where preparations for the 2025 state budget were also discussed.

Reuters reported late on Thursday that the US military’s humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza, which has been hampered by bad weather and aid distribution problems, would shut down soon.

President Joe Biden announced in March plans to put the pier in place for aid deliveries as famine loomed in Gaza, an enclave of 2.3 million people.

While the pier has brought in 8,100 metric tonnes of aid to a marshalling area on Gaza’s shore since it started operating in May, the 370-metre-long floating pier has had to be removed multiple times because of bad weather.

Much of the aid has not reached hungry Gazans after the UN World Food Programme paused operations in June because of security concerns, Reuters reported.

Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said the military unsuccessfully tried to re-anchor the pier on Wednesday. There was no new date for a re-anchoring, but the effort would soon end.

“The pier has always been intended as a temporary solution to enable the additional flow of aid into Gaza during a period of dire humanitarian need … the pier will soon cease operations,” Ryder said.

US officials told Reuters that the pier operations could shift to the Israeli port of Ashdod as soon as next week.