Personnel board the U.S. Army Vessel (USAV) General Frank S. Besson (LSV-1) from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps as it departs en route to the Eastern Mediterranean after President Biden announced the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea, at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, United States, March 9, 2024.
CAIRO--The U.S. Army has dispatched a ship to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday, days after President Joe Biden vowed to build a temporary pier to supply the besieged enclave. The General Frank S. Besson left Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia "less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea," CENTCOM said in a statement.
The logistics support vessel is "carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies," it said. Biden's announcement in his State of the Union address on Thursday followed U.N. warnings of widespread famine among Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians five months after Israel launched its offensive in the narrow strip in response to an attack by Hamas militants. Gaza has no port infrastructure. The U.S. initially plans to use Cyprus, which is offering a process for screening cargoes that will include Israel officials, removing the need for security checks in Gaza. Most of Gaza's people are now internally displaced, with severe bottlenecks in aid deliveries at land border checkpoints. Gaza has been under an Israeli navy blockade since 2007, when Hamas took control of the enclave. There have been few direct sea arrivals since then. U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to build a floating U.S. military port could take up to 60 days to become a reality and involve more than 1,000 American troops, the Pentagon said on Friday. The Pentagon offered the timeline a day after Biden announced the initiative in his State of the Union speech, as he seeks to cool anger in his Democratic Party over his staunch support for Israel's offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7. The United Nations has warned that widespread famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" without urgent action. A formal conclusion that famine has arrived in the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people could come this week. The U.N. has said that once famine is declared, it is too late to help many people. "Children in Gaza cannot wait to eat. They are already dying from malnutrition and saving their lives is a matter of hours or days - not weeks," said Jason Lee at Save the Children. Some U.S. lawmakers and aid organizations said the floating pier system masked the bigger issue: the failure to get Israel's government to allow more aid to enter Gaza by land, which is the fastest, most efficient option. "This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem," said Avril Benoît, executive director for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in the United States. "Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist." Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, described the planning for the port system as still in its early stages, with deployment orders just starting to go out to those troops who will head to the Middle East. The Pentagon said it had also not yet determined exactly how the landing site for the floating port system would be secured against any threats and said it was in discussions with partners including Israel. Asked whether the Pentagon anticipated the port system would be targeted by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. calls a terrorist organization, Ryder said: "That's certainly a risk." "But if Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then, again, one would hope that this international mission to deliver aid to people who need it would be able to happen unhindered," Ryder said. Still, in a sign that security was a concern, Ryder said no U.S. troops would enter Gaza, even temporarily, to complete port construction.
