A US soldier leaves a cordoned-off area as other troops work on a beached vessel, used for delivering aid to Palestinians via a new US-built pier in Gaza, after it got stuck trying to help another vessel behind it, on the Mediterranean coast in Ashdod, Israel, May 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

A US-led initiative to erect a temporary pier to transport humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip has been a disaster thus far.

Rough seas caused four transportation vessels to detach from their moorings and drift away from the newly-assembled pier. Two of the vessels beached near the pier and another two landed on the shore of Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel. 

US forces constructed the pier off the Gaza coast to streamline and accelerate transportation of humanitarian aid. The Biden administration ordered the construction of the $320 million pier in April in response to allegations that the Israeli government has not done enough to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

During a Tuesday press conference, Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the US Defense Department’s press secretary, acknowledged that none of the 569 metric tons of aid delivered across the pier has made it into the hands of Gaza residents. Ryder told reporters that the Biden administration’s “humanitarian partners” have not been able to distribute the aid to Palestinian civilians. Moreover, Ryder explained that some of the trucks delivering aid to warehouses in Gaza were “intercepted.”

“Some of that initial aid that was brought in, as it was being taken along a transportation route, was intercepted by some people who took that aid off those vehicles,” Ryder said. 

“Subsequently, there’s been discussions by which to ensure that there’s alternate routes so that it can be delivered to warehouses,” Ryder continued. 

On Saturday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), one of the humanitarian partners involved in aid distribution within the war-torn enclave, revealed that only five of the sixteen trucks made it to their destination. The rest of the trucks were raided by gangs of looters. 

WFP spokesperson Steve Taravella warned the Associated Press that the delivery program might fail without serious logistics changes. 

“Without sufficient supplies entering Gaza, these issues will continue to surface. Community acceptance and trust that this is not a one-off event are essential for this operation’s success,” Taravella said in an email. “We have raised this issue with the relevant parties and reiterated our request for alternative roads to facilitate aid delivery. Unless we receive the necessary clearance and coordination to use additional routes, this operation may not be successful.”

US Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) criticized the decision to erect the pier, suggesting that it has placed American soldiers at unnecessary risk and that the influx of aid will only serve Hamas’ interests. 

“At the end of the day, it’s unnecessarily putting our people in harm’s way,” Waltz told Fox News.

Waltz argued that since Hamas controls the warehouses in Gaza, the terrorist group will leverage the aid to ensure that civilians do not “rise up against them.”

Earlier this month, a US State Department spokesman told reporters that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, attempted to seize a major shipment of humanitarian aid from Jordan intended for civilians in Gaza.