The US will establish a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid

The US military is planning to build a port in Gaza so that humanitarian aid can reach the territory by sea, senior US officials announced this Thursday.

The temporary port will increase the amount of humanitarian aid to Palestinians by “hundreds of additional loads” per day.

The initiative does not include the ground deployment of US troops to Gaza.

The UN warns that a quarter of the population is on the brink of famine.

It will take “several weeks” for the port to be able to accommodate larger vessels. Food, medicine and temporary shelter.

The first shipment will arrive via Cyprus, where Israeli security inspections will take place.

US President Joe Biden will make the formal announcement during his State of the Union address this Thursday.

On October 7, the Israeli government launched an air and ground campaign against the Gaza Strip in response to an attack on Israeli territory by the armed group Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage.

More than 30,800 people have died in Gaza Since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Difficulties in getting supplies and medicines to the population have become a serious problem.

The US The port that is planned to be established in Gaza will include a temporary dock to transport supplies from ships at sea to shore.

It is not clear who will build the connecting bridges or secure support on the ground, meaning crucial questions about whether the operation can succeed remain unanswered.

Gaza does not have a deep-water port, so the United States has evaluated various ways to deliver aid.

At the same time, the Biden administration has publicly stepped it up Pressure on Israel And has expressed his impatience with the desperate situation on the ground.

US officials told BBC US partner CBS that the pier is planned to be installed by an army unit called the 7th Transportation Brigade, based in Fort Story, Virginia.

There is a brigade Designed for rapid deploymentBut the warships have not yet left the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week that children are dying of hunger in northern Gaza, where an estimated 300,000 Palestinians live with little food or clean water.

Aid trucks are entering southern Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossings.

But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of the Israeli ground offensive, has been largely cut off from aid in recent months.

Last week, amid growing frustration, More than 100 people died Trying to reach a humanitarian aid convoy.

Palestinians said most of the deaths were from gunfire by Israeli soldiers.

For its part, the Israeli military, which oversees private aid distribution, said: Most died in the stampede.

On 20 February, the World Food Program (WFP) announced the suspension of food deliveries to northern Gaza after its first aid convoy experienced “chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order”, including violent looting.

The US And other nations have turned to delivering aid by air, but humanitarian organizations say the method is a last resort and cannot meet growing needs.

An independent UN expert on Thursday accused Israel of waging a “starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.

“The images of starvation in Gaza are unbearable and you are doing nothing,” said Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council.

“Israel completely denies the allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war,” said Yella Citrin, legal adviser to the Israeli mission to the UN.

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