Human Rights
Gaza pier is for purely humanitarian purposes, US officials stress
The US-built pier is part of an internationally backed humanitarian effort coordinated with the UN -- and not a project with any military purpose.
![Trucks deliver aid to Gaza via the newly operational pier constructed by the US military. [CENTCOM]](/gc1/images/2024/05/21/46676-pier-trucks-gaza-600_384.webp)
By Al-Fassel |
The temporary pier the US military constructed to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza is serving purely humanitarian purposes as part of a wider international effort, top US officials said amid disinformation about purported military reasons for the pier.
US military personnel anchored the pier to the beach in Gaza on May 16 and aid began flowing into Gaza immediately, deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
This was done "without any US boots on the ground in Gaza," she said.
There is "a small footprint of US military on the pier, but they will not go into Gaza," US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said May 17.
![US forces built a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians affected by the conflict. [CENTCOM]](/gc1/images/2024/05/21/46668-pier-sky-view-600_384.webp)
"There are no Israeli Defense Forces on the pier," he said.
The pier is supporting "the efforts of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations (UN) to deliver and distribute aid," Singh said.
"This is an internationally backed effort coordinated with the UN," she noted, adding that the US military "is merely providing the logistical support to enable humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza from the sea."
"It is designed solely -- only -- for the delivery of humanitarian assistance," Kirby said.
"There are no US service members in Gaza," he said. "There is a small US military component on the pier itself" to "provide a modicum of security for it but also to assist with the logistics."
The US Navy is helping to get the aid "onto smaller vessels out further away from the pier, well off the coast, so that those smaller vessels then can transload the material onto the pier," he said.
"So, what we do is we take the stuff off the bigger ships -- all well off the coast -- put it on smaller US Navy vessels. Those smaller US Navy vessels will bring it into the pier and offload it so it can get onto trucks."
"There's been some bogus stuff out there in the information environment, particularly in the region, that this has some sort of military capacity or operational capacity for the IDF, and it just doesn’t," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. "It’s nothing more than humanitarian assistance."
"And we've also passed that message back through the appropriate channels to Hamas so they understand exactly what this is," she said.
"I mean, we're making no secret about what this thing is and what it's not."
You don't want us to return to Gaza so move us out of Gaza aboard the ships docked at the pier. We are tired. All the people are waiting for migration, by God.
You are partners in a war of extermination of our people
You have financed, armed, supported, and participated, and continue to do so. You have betrayed your people, yourselves, and your principles. You betrayed humanity when your country was taken over by the abhorrent, enemy of humanity, racist, and criminal Zionists. We know your ambitions and your dirty intentions. You and your criminal mercenary instruments, the criminal, human scum that are the Zionists.
How long will we suffer the terrifying bombardment and displacement from place to place? Houses, streets, universities, schools, hospitals, and everything that had been built on the land of Gaza has been destroyed. From Rafah to the north, there are no longer any buildings that can accommodate the residents of the Strip, and the Strip is no longer fit for living because of the very large amount of explosives that have been dropped on it. There is no life. There is no future for the youth, even the children, the elderly, the women, all of them have lost hope in life. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.
Question: Is this crossing meant for aiding the Palestinian people or for trade by the blood merchants, those merchants who trade in the livelihood of the displaced?
Question: Will the residents of the Gaza Strip be allowed to travel through this crossing without any fees or coordination, as the State of Egypt allows? I think that the dream of all the youth and most of those who have suffered from the scourge of war is to travel and leave the Strip to the two warring parties.
What good is it for me if I've lost my 3-story house in al-Zahraa, each floor 700 square meters, and with a basement, and we are now ten families left without shelter or a source of livelihood, forbidden from entering al-Zahraa, and the spies and thieves have stolen the furniture and doors?
This sidewalk has increased our misery. All the talk and justifications are nonsense, lies and fraud.
My name is Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Madi and my cell number is 0599466088.
Allah is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs.
Good luck
Good luck. May God bless the efforts of the compassionate mother, America. But when will people be moved out or allowed to travel aboard the ships, and who will be the middleman, like the Ya Hala Company (Ibrahim al-Arjani) is at the Rafah crossing? And how much will the cost of travel be? You have God to turn to, prideful Gaza.
Excellent and meets the needs of destitute people 71647
We ask God to make this ordeal pass without harm