Biden Orders “Emergency Mission” To Build Port In Gaza For Aid Shipments

In the wake of a handful of the humanitarian air drops delivered by US C130s over the Gaza Strip, the White House has come under fire by critics who say the effort has sent too little food and is thus ineffective for the over two million Palestinians who face starvation.

For example last weekend’s airdrop by United States and Jordan included 66 bundles of aid containing 38,000 meals. Progressives have called this a “shimmering stunt”. An op-ed in Mother Jones notes that “A very small NGO, Anera, does 150,000 meals a day. They do four times the amount of meals that the United States Air Force did, but every single day. The US Air Force had two drops in four days. A small NGO is effectively doing much better.”

In President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday night, he ordered the Pentagon to conduct an “emergency mission” to expand US humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip – this time using a maritime route. He described that a port will be built by the US military, and will utilize a temporary pier to get supplies from ships to the people of Gaza.

“A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” President Biden said, and called on Israel to “do its part” be letting more aid into the besieged territory while ensuring that “humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire.”

“Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” the president emphasized, after recent tensions with Tel Aviv over blocked aid access at the Rafah border crossing.

A senior admin official earlier told Axios that “The president asked us to look into all options for getting more aid to Gaza and not wait for the Israelis.” Officials have also said the port is expected to take “a number of weeks” to set up. Security inspections of the food, water, and medical supplies will take place in nearby Cyprus.

Tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the White House over Gaza policy have continued to be on display, interestingly as also revealed in the below Biden hot mic moment from Thursday night…

President Biden: “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.”

“I’m on a hot mic here. Good. That’s good.” pic.twitter.com/KCgpbx4awf

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 8, 2024

As for the practical reality and difficulties of establishing a port and temporary pier in what is still effectively a war zone, BBC has described the project is to be undertaken by Army engineers and a transport/logistics team out of Virginia:

Gaza has no deep water port and so the US has for weeks been looking at ways to get shiploads of aid in urgently, while the administration has publicly ramped up its pressure and increasingly shown in public its impatience with Israel over the desperate situation on the ground.

US officials told the BBC’s US partner, CBS, that there are plans for the pier to be installed by an army unit called the 7th Transportation Brigade, based at Fort Story, Virginia. The brigade is designed for rapid deployment, but the military ships have not yet left the US, the officials said.

US soldiers are expected to construct the pier and launch it from aboard US Navy vessels offshore. Vice Adm Kevin Donegan, the most senior US Navy commander in the Middle East has said the plan is “absolutely executable” 

However, a senior US official has emphasized, “The current plan doesn’t include any U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.”