Gaza floating pier
The Gaza floating pier was a floating dock facility created by the U.S. military after being proposed immediately before U.S. President Biden's 2024 State of the Union Address on March 7, 2024. It was in use between May and July 2024.
It was constructed by U.S. military forces based on ships offshore of the Gaza Strip, then connected to the shore by causeway, to enable the delivery of maritime cargo for humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The unloading point joined the Netzarim Corridor. The World Food Programme was responsible for receiving and distributing the aid.
President Biden stated that Israel "must also do its part." He noted, "Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority."
Israel planned to inspect the humanitarian aid in Cyprus before it was shipped to the pier and again at checkpoints in Gaza once it was moved off the pier. The pier could deliver 150 trucks of aid per day. After its collapse, it was dismissed by Stephen Walt as an expensive PR stunt to sidestep pressuring Israel to open its border crossings. The United States denied allegations that Israeli forces had used the Gaza floating pier during the Nuseirat rescue and massacre.
At its closure announcement on July 17, the pier had been operational for 20 days, delivering of aid. The pier had been dismantled three times because of high sea states.
Background
A blockade has been imposed on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip since Hamas came to power in 2007, led by Israel and supported by Egypt. The blockade's current stated aim is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza; previously stated motivations have included exerting economic pressure on Hamas.Attempts to bring in humanitarian aid by water into Gaza have been attempted multiple times and have ended with intervention by the Israeli military. In May 2010, the Israel Defense Forces participated in a military operation dubbed the Gaza flotilla raid against six civilian ships in international waters, resulting in contested events; nine passengers of the flotilla killed and thirty passengers and 10 IDF troops wounded. In July 2011, a second flotilla was planned by 22 NGOs to attempt to break the maritime blockade but did not take place. In the summer of 2015, a third flotilla was planned to break the blockade and set out from Sweden with multiple stops before being intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters and participants detained.
The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian crisis as a result of the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The crisis includes both a famine and the destruction of Gaza's healthcare system. At the start of the war, Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip on October 9, 2023, with Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a "total blockade", blocking the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity. This has resulted in significant shortages of fuel, food, medication, water, and essential medical supplies. After receiving pressure from U.S. President Biden, Gallant changed his position of a complete blockade and a deal was made on 19 October for Israel and Egypt to allow aid into Gaza.
In January 2024, Israeli authorities blocked 56% of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza. On February 9, 2024, UNRWA's director Philippe Lazzarini reported that Israel had blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Outline plan
During October and November 2023, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides developed the maritime aid corridor idea, named the Amalthea Initiative, with European Union leaders at a humanitarian conference in Paris and elsewhere. On November 5, 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Cyprus to discuss the maritime aid corridor.On November 20, 2023, Christodoulides said Cyprus was ready to ship large quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza when a pause in fighting was declared. He noted that shallow-draft vessels could be used in the short term to ferry aid, and in the medium term, a floating dock off Gaza could be used. He had regularly contacted the Israeli Prime Minister about the proposal, but getting authorization required careful negotiations. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Israel was "definitely in favor of the project."
The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior Israeli diplomatic source said the plan was based on a proposal for a maritime route to Gaza via Cyprus for humanitarian assistance initiated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in collaboration with President Biden on October 22, 2023. The Jerusalem Post reported that on October 31, Netanyahu outlined this proposal to Cypriot President Christodoulides. On January 19, 2024, Netanyahu proposed to Biden that a team should be set up to explore the proposal, including inspecting all goods transported. On December 20, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said, "The creation of a maritime corridor to Gaza will help Israel's economic disengagement from the Strip", following a meeting with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos to discuss the maritime aid corridor. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had proposed a similar plan to Cyprus in 2010 when it was called the Lieberman Proposal, and again in 2018 when he was Defense Minister. In 2021, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid proposed the Gaza Development Plan which included a sea port on an artificial island under Israeli security control off Gaza.
The pier was designed to allow delivery of thousands of tons of food aid at a time, equivalent to "hundreds of truckloads", via barges embarked in Cyprus and screened for contraband there by Cyprus Police.
Over 1,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the construction of the pier and long Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore type modular causeway over 60 days. The part of the JLOTS system included in this project is a large floating modular unloading platform secured by sea anchors stationed about three miles offshore, allowing supplies to be then transferred by lighters to a modular causeway off the shore. The project, known internally as the Blue Beach Plan, was partially developed by an advisory group called Fogbow, co-founded by Michael Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, and Sam Mundy, a retired Marine Lt. Gen. The plan includes potentially dredging a corridor on a private beachfront to aid unloading. The goal is to allow barges to approach the shore for aid distribution onto trucks. The military pier, once operational, could provide another way for aid delivery. The Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore was not required under the original Blue Beach Plan.
Fogbow plan
The Fogbow plan was a strategy created by the American advisory group Fogbow, founded by Michael Mulroy and Sam Mundy and managed by former US Military, Intelligence, and United Nations personnel, to establish a maritime corridor. According to the initial Fogbow plan, a significant portion of aid would be transported using Masri trucks to the Gaza Industrial Zone, a specified area within the Gaza sector. Additionally, Fogbow aimed to set up a new beach landing site to deliver humanitarian aid. The initiative sought to improve aid distribution by increasing the number of drop zones along the coast, making it easier to transport aid to remote areas that are difficult to reach by typical overland routes. The IDF agreed to provide security assistance to Fogbow. To support the implementation of this plan, funding would be directed through a recently established foundation called the "Maritime Humanitarian Aid Foundation."As of June 2024, the pier has handled thousands of tons of food aid, with Fogbow delivering over a thousand pallets of food.
Temporary interim jetty
On March 12, prior to construction of the U.S. pier, a barge "testing" the delivery route, operated by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms and loaded with 200 tons of food from World Central Kitchen, left the port of Larnaca in Cyprus for Gaza. A jetty for unloading the barge was built at a location that was initially "not disclosed for security reasons", but later discerned to be south of Gaza City by journalists using commercial satellite imagery or talking to local construction workers. The Cyprus foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said on March 13 that the US pier and the food route out of Larnaca would become a single operation. The first barge arrived and began to be unloaded at the World Central Kitchen jetty on March 15.Construction and route history
On March 9, 2024, the U.S. Army support ship General Frank S. Besson was sent from Norfolk to begin pier construction. Four more ships with 500 Army troops left on March 12. The ships included landing craft USAV Wilson Wharf, USAV Matamoros and USAV Monterrey; and Besson-class support ship USAV SP4 James A. Loux. In addition to Army, Naval Beach Group 1 from San Diego, and from an East Coast maritime reserve force were assigned to assist in construction. Roy P. Benavidez departed from Virginia on March 21.The Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee chairpersons Mark Warner and Ben Cardin requested briefings from the Biden administration on the force protection plan for the U.S. units participating in the construction. On March 28, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told the press that Israel would be providing security during the installation of the pier.
By April 5, Besson and Benavidez had reached the Mediterranean. By April 17, Besson, Benavidez and three other Army vessels had reached Crete. During April the IDF prepared the concrete walled landing site which included a storage zone for aid awaiting movement by trucking contractors into Gaza.
The Royal Navy participated in the effort; RFA Cardigan Bay was used by American soldiers and sailors as a dormitory.
On April 26, construction of the pier by US forces began, and satellite photos published a few days later showed Benavidez building the dock from the Gaza shore.
On May 1, a Pentagon spokesperson said that the floating pier was complete, and the causeway was under construction, with the total project more than half completed. On May 7, it was reported that the causeway had been assembled offshore and was ready to be moved and connected to the shore.
A Centurion C-RAM and the M-LIDS anti-drone systems were installed in May by the shore-attached section of the pier for force protection.
On May 16, the U.S. military announced that the causeway had been anchored and connected to the Gaza shoreline. Trucks began delivering aid off of the pier on May 17. On May 21, a Pentagon spokesperson said that 569 tonnes of aid had crossed the temporary pier but had so far not been distributed, and that moving forward on "safety and security" for humanitarian aid organization workers was critical.
The U.S. military cost estimate to build the pier and operate it for 90 days was $320 million, roughly double the initial estimate. Two U.S. Army service members who were injured in May while working on the project later returned to duty, but a third, Sgt. Quandarius Stanley, died on October 31.