Pentagon permanently ends troubled Gaza pier operation

The U.S. military will permanently dismantle the pier meant to deliver assistance off the coast of Gaza, putting an end to the troubled effort to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians via the Mediterranean Sea, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. 

The mission to install and use the temporary, floating structure “is complete. So there's no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters. 

The pier, along with support vessels and equipment, is currently in port in Ashdod, Israel after it was removed June 28 due to bad weather. Humanitarian aid shipments will soon be shifted to the port, where aid will be offloaded onto trucks and driven into northern Gaza, Cooper said. 

Defense officials last week said they were wrapping up operations on the mission, known officially as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) after continued wind and rough seas in the region prevented the pier from being reattached to shore. 

The pier’s removal marks the end of a project that has frequently been the target of ridicule due to its exorbitant price tag and frequent breakdowns that have resulted in far less aid delivered into the embattled territory as had been envisioned. 

The structure had to be removed three times since it was installed on May 17, first on May 25 after being damaged by high winds and waves. Army vessels became beached in Gaza and Israel and three of the roughly 1,000 troops assigned to build and operate the pier sustained injuries during that time. 

The pier was reconnected on June 7, but a week later on June 14 it was again removed due to weather. It was reattached days later but further rough seas once again damaged the structure and it was never put back.

President Biden, who first announced the pier in his State of the Union address in March, last week said he was “disappointed” with the effort meant to ferry aid positioned in Cyprus to the pier to then be unloaded in Gaza and dispersed through various humanitarian organizations. 

“I've been disappointed that some of the things that I've put forward have not succeeded as well, like the port we attached from Cyprus. I was hopeful Cyprus, that would be more successful,” Biden during a news conference in Washington.

Following the announced end of the project, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) lambasted the effort as a “national embarrassment.”

“The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” Wicker said in a statement. “While I am glad it has finally concluded, we cannot buy back the $230 million needlessly spent, and significant questions remain about the Biden administration’s poor planning for this mission.”

Cooper did note the project’s price tag is “going to come in well underneath the $230 million” initially estimated.

The pier was only used for 20 days to deliver about 20 million pounds of aid, but Cooper insisted the operation was a success.

“The pier has done exactly what we intended it to do,” he said.

Cooper said there’s at least 5 million pounds of aid in Cyprus still remaining and the personnel “remain on mission to get that delivered in the quickest way possible.”