US may need two months and 1,000 troops to build floating dock to bring aid to Gaza, Pentagon says

(CNN) — It could take at least a month or possibly two months for the US military to build and fully operate a floating dock and causeway to deliver critical humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.

Ryder also said that 1,000 US military personnel would be needed to complete construction of the pier and causeway.

The extended timeline reflects the complex nature of the project, which is the second extraordinary step the Biden administration has announced in less than a week to try to deal with the desperate humanitarian situation caused by the refusal to open or send additional land crossings to Palestinians in Gaza. More land aid to the enclave as it continues to fight Hamas.

The initiative aims to enhance the maritime corridor that the United States, the European Commission, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus and the United Kingdom are working to directly support.

Despite growing pressure from the United States, the Israeli government’s apparent refusal to recognize the urgency of the humanitarian crisis is growing frustration with the administration. The US military dock is part of a series of measures announced by the international community to address the crisis in Gaza, where more than two million people are in need of food and the medical system has practically collapsed.

The US A plan to install a floating dock for the military, announced by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address Thursday night, the U.S. was started only a few days after the introduction of food by from the air in Gaza to try to help the population, which the United Nations has warned is on the brink of famine.

Airdrops are “a drop in the ocean”.

Thousands of meals are dropped by the US Air Force which is not even close to what is needed to feed the more than two million Palestinians living in the enclave. Although ongoing airdrops have provided little relief, in the words of UN humanitarian official Sigrid Kag, “a drop in the bucket.”

The maritime corridor will be used by multiple nations, but the floating dock off the coast of Gaza will be operated by the US government and staffed by the US military, including Navy and Army personnel.

The dock will allow ships to unload the aid, which will then be transported through a causeway to Gaza that will also be built by the US military, officials said. The construction will utilize the Army’s combined onshore logistics capability, which includes unloading cargo from ships in areas without fixed port facilities. According to Ryder, the United States last used this capability last year in an exercise called Talisman Sabre.

Ryder said Friday that the U.S. Military personnel will not transport aid into Gaza from the causeway, and the causeway will be anchored offshore by Gaza’s regional partners. Once operational, the capacity could provide 2 million meals a day for the population of Gaza, Ryder said.

“We are in the process of identifying, supplying and, in some cases, joining forces to deploy it,” Ryder said. “But I can confirm that elements of the 7th Transportation Brigade at Joint Expeditionary Base Langley Eustis in Virginia have been tasked with support.”

The temporary dock concept was developed by an organization called Fogbo, an advisory group made up of former military, UN, USAID and CIA personnel, according to a person familiar with the plan. The operation is known internally as Plan Playa Azul, the person familiar said.

Fogbo is headed by former senior US military and intelligence officers. A Qatari official told CNN that they are investing $60 million in a maritime corridor initiative in which Fogbo will take operational leadership, expected to deliver aid from dock to beach for transport and distribution.

We are committed to support the planned Maritime Corridor of Fogbo,” the official said. “This public-private partnership will bring 200 trucks of aid by barge from Cyprus to Gaza every day. Qatar has accepted a significant financial contribution.”

A US official said the United States is in talks with other organizations to support the project, but nothing has been formalized yet.

TOPSHOT – Palestinian women carry bottles of water in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on March 1, 2024, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo via AFP) (Photo via Getty Images -/AFP)

Immense challenges

But the challenges remain immense. Because the White House has already ruled out sending American troops to Gaza, the United States is still trying to decide who will receive aid on the other side of the causeway and distribute it inside the enclave, officials said.

“I am directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary dock in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Gaza, which can receive large shipments of food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” Biden said Thursday. “There will be no American troops on the ground.”

A US official said humanitarian operators would be at the arrival site to receive, store and distribute aid from the docks. Another person familiar with the planning said the distributors would be Palestinians under the direction of the UN.

All ships arriving at the floating dock will also have to be pre-inspected for safety reasons, officials said.

A pilot program led by the United Arab Emirates for a maritime corridor that does not require a port is expected to begin distributing aid later this week, the European Union said on Friday. But the program, which was developed in conjunction with the nonprofit aid organization World Central Kitchen, involves only one small amphibious vessel.

“This maritime operation remains fluid and rapidly evolving,” World Central Kitchen said in a statement, noting that its effort was independent of Biden’s announcement.

Debates about opening the sea corridor intensified in recent weeks after it became clear that humanitarian aid was not being allowed through the few open land crossings into Gaza quickly enough, officials said.

Administration officials and international aid workers have repeatedly emphasized that aid must be “flooded” to the people of Gaza, and that the most effective way to do that is through land crossings.

US officials have claimed for months that the only reason Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has changed his stance on the conflict in Gaza is because of the Biden administration’s efforts.

The United States Air Force delivers humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, Saturday, March 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)

Yet, for weeks and weeks, increasing verbal pressure from the United States had no effect on the Israeli government to open additional crossings for aid, even as the humanitarian crisis deepened. In February, as Israeli opposition to the Kerem Shalom crossing grew, the number of trucks passing through the existing crossing decreased.

The disappointment came last Thursday when Israeli soldiers opened fire on people crowding a food convoy in the north, killing more than a hundred people.

The US president and vice president said Israel had “no excuse” not to increase aid allowed to Gaza.

On Thursday, a senior US administration official said “the government of Israel has prepared a new land crossing directly into northern Gaza,” but did not say where it would be.

“This third crossing will allow aid to be delivered directly to the population of northern Gaza who are in urgent need of assistance,” the official told reporters. “As the UN confirmed today, we expect the first deliveries to transit this crossing in the coming weeks, starting with a pilot and then increasing.”

Kaag, the UN’s top humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, stressed that “if everything goes through one or two crossings, we cannot expect miracles, especially when the situation inside Gaza is very difficult.”