US military says Gaza Strip pier project is completed, aid to soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages on

The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border.

Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the maritime route is designed to bolster the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip, but it is not considered a substitute for far cheaper land-based deliveries that aid agencies say are much more sustainable. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.

Amoxtli,

G.I. Joe is the clown, and you are in his circus. If he doesn’t say it is genocide, then it isn’t genocide, and the Western news media won’t call it a genocide either. The psy-ops continues.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

That’s amazing now they can combine handing out the flour bags and delivering the tank shells to the Nazis shooting at the flour distribution cars.

Genocide has never been more efficient.

solo, (edited )

"You take some flour. We made a floating pier for you."

"And you take 1 billion dollars in arms to kill those you starve to death."

FiniteBanjo,

There have been images of aid being unloaded onto the piers for over a week.

Stamau123,

It’s not like they would wait for it to be 100% to start unloading flour and socks. The last touches were probably to secure the offloading of heavier and/or specialized equipment.

xenomor,

I hope everyone understands that this entire project is a facade, designed to provide Biden and his administration with a hook on which they can hang claims of deniability without actually meaningfully hampering Israel’s genocide campaign.

catloaf,

And once Israel completes the genocide I’m sure they’ll be quite happy that the US built them a pier.

athos77,

the aid trucks will be unloaded on the shore in an area secured by Israeli forces [...] Israeli forces will be in charge of security on the shore

Right ... those same Israeli forces that have refused to let aid trucks into Gaza, have refused to let aid trucks move through Gaza, who have let Israelis loot burn and destroy aid trucks, who have deliberately and repeatedly targeted aid trucks and aid workers, repeatedly killing them? Those Israeli forces? I'm sure this'll be fine ...

Sir_Kevin,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

If this was a movie script it would be rejected for not making sense. But here we are in this clown-show reality.

StaySquared,

Don’t be surprised if the U.S. claims they were attacked by Hamas and the U.S. gets dragged into the war.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Never gonna happen.

danekrae,

Has oil been found Rafah?

StaySquared,

According to a 2019 UN report, there are over 3 billion barrels of oil estimated to be located beneath the occupied lands of Palestine, including off the coast. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has identified potential and existing oil and natural gas reserves in the West Bank and Gaza, including 1,525 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in the occupied Palestinian territories. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says that the Palestinian territories do not produce oil.

BetaBlake,

Not happening, the US genuinely wants nothing to do with Fighting Israel’s bullshit

djsoren19,

Oh no, now the U.S. is Hamas too!

athos77,

The US has been Hamas ever since they said they were holding back bombs that might be used in Rafah.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

But then decided to send another billion in weapons to Israel.

Their cognitive dissonance is astounding.

gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

As an American, I would just like to say I’m fucking infuriated by how my government is handling this shit. Moreover, most of us who aren’t in the throes of the Trump cult are at the very least least dismayed with what our government is doing (that is, giving Israel a military aid firehose and doing fuck all to actually try to stop them from committing genocide).

We’ve got several crimes against humanity under our belt. I, for one, would very much like to avoid adding another. But Biden doesn’t seem to give a shit. And this also has the horrifying possibility of throwing the election, which would herald a whole hell of a lot of things that would be terrible for far, far more people in far more places than just Gaza (though, to be clear, Gaza would probably get fully genocided - maybe by US B-52s, if Trump wins it).

I fucking hate our political system so much. It’s so fundamentally and obviously broken, and the only people who can fix it are the same people who benefit from it being broken, so it’s going to stay broken. Who knows what will end up breaking through that deadlock… I’m just getting pretty fucking concerned that it’s gonna involve some political violence sometime soon.

eestileib,

It’s not that Biden doesn’t give a shit. It’s that Biden agrees with Bibi that the people living in Gaza are Dirty Others who must be kept in line with the threat of force.

thejml,

Biden is the one who decided, against Congress orders, to hold back the bomb shipment. The GOP was actively drafting legislation to push them out over his head when he allowed it through trying to skip becoming a Republican talking point… but I really wish he didn’t capitulate to the GOP’s desires so easily.

Amoxtli, (edited )

Joe Biden is a Zionist, he has admitted this. He loves Israel more than America. Look how he is trashing America’s image for Israeli nationalism. The Israeli government considers Palestinians subhuman. I wonder if Genocide Joe considers them subhuman as well.

gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

I don’t agree.

I think this is honestly just the typical boomer “back Israel to the hilt because Jewish people got absolutely fucked by the Holocaust”, while simultaneously flat out ignoring the fact that Israel != all Jewish people.

mightyfoolish,

By that logic, these two things are the same as long as we elect boomer government officials.

gravitas_deficiency,

Again, no.

The two things are being treated as the same by the Biden administration.

Don’t ignore nuance. Ignoring nuance is what Netanyahu and the Israeli is actively trying to get everyone to do to, in the interest of giving themselves some geopolitical cover for executing their own “final solution” in Gaza.

Ignoring nuance is also what a lot of other autocrats and populists are trying to do in their own way, including Orban, Modi, Milei, Fico (to whom I wish a very slow, lengthy, and complicated convalescence), Trump, and Putin - along with much (or most) of the political parties behind them. It’s all in the interest of solidifying autocratic power and wealth, and scapegoating problems on people who are not the root cause of said problems (a common populist tactic).

Tujio, (edited )

I’d at it’s more 'there are two regional powers here, Israel and Iran. The more aid we give Israel the easier it makes Iran"

Edit: weaker* it makes Iran

Fucking autocorrect.

gravitas_deficiency,

And that zero-sum game thinking is idiotic.

Frankly, if we (read: mainly the US and the UK) made amends with Iran (and I know precisely how enormous of a conditional statement that is), and successfully ameliorate and rationalize their policy towards Israel (i.e. convince them to call off their own frankly genocidal policy towards Israel), that could be the the start of the path towards a much more robust peace in the middle east. It’ll likely take several generations to mellow things to a truly sustainable and reasonable level. But something like that might, I believe, be the start of the path to lasting peace in the Middle East - or at the very least, significantly diminished violence and conflict.

Tujio,

We had a tiny chance when Obama and Rouhani were talking. Hell, at one point we had a treaty. There was a road map and some hope.

Then Trump fucked it all up for no reason, along with all the other shit he pulled.

gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

I mean… he fucked it up because one of the primary motivations of his entire goddamn presidency was to just shit in as many punch bowls with which Obama was even remotely affiliated.

Also, he’s deeply racist, and he’s also sore that Obama got a zinger in at the Press Correspondents dinner that one time (for real - but for one joke that a psychopath took poorly, we might have avoided the Trumpian era).

NatakuNox,
@NatakuNox@lemmy.world avatar

Considering US money has been funding both side, (remember those suitcases full of money the IDF has been giving to Hamas? true story) I wouldn’t be surprised if that money comes from US aid to Israel.

disguy_ovahea,

The article states that the World Food Program will be delivering the aid. After seeing the tragic IDF attacks, as well as Hamas hoarding and selling food, shouldn’t the aid be delivered by military personnel?

ryathal,

You need military personnel from a country willing to do that. No one would trust Israel, Biden isn’t doing that in an election year. Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria don’t really care about Palestinians, or would make things worse with their presence. The US would block a UN presence more than likely. Europe is a bit preoccupied with Ukraine, and wouldn’t put troops into another war zone with limited up side.

disguy_ovahea, (edited )

According to the article, the US military is in charge of the boat routes and overseeing military checkpoints. I’m just suggesting they drive the truck.

Biden has been pushing for aid to get safely into Gaza. That’s why the US built the dock in the first place. Why would the US block UN assistance in delivering aid?

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Because Israel doesn’t want the UN involved at all.

disguy_ovahea,

UN members are still providing humanitarian and defensive aid. The UK helped shoot down Iranian drones, and has been assisting in defending Israel from attacks in the Red Sea. They’ve provided Gaza with 150 tonnes of aid, including more than 13,000 blankets and 840 family-sized tents, entered Gaza on 13 March 2024.

gov.uk/…/uk-aid-en-route-to-temporary-pier-off-ga…

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Individual nations are involved. The only presence the UN had was UNRWA and Netanyahu made sure they (mostly) disappeared … although currently an UNRWA health clinic is being shelled by the IDF. Source

disguy_ovahea, (edited )

I see your point, but it’s hard to tell if that’s the IDF targeting the UN or Gaza aid in general. They’ve been openly critical of both, but they’ve also attacked World Central Kitchen twice.

wck.org/news/amro

Kidplayer_666,

Pretty sure they don’t want to risk being dragged into yet another conflict in the Middle East. If someone got killed, hawkish republicans would demand an invasion and US troops

disguy_ovahea,

They’re already present as escorts through most of the route. I’m just suggesting they deliver the aid directly to discourage Israel and Hamas from targeting workers again. Both groups know better than to challenge the US military.

ryathal,

It wouldn’t be just delivering aid. Once the military is there it’s a military operation. Their goal can be protecting aid, but that also means they likely have to fire on hamas raids, or even the Israel army at some point and either case is bad for everyone.

disguy_ovahea, (edited )

In that case the best they could do is escort wherever legally possible to maintain it as delivery of aid while still offering protection. Do you have a source that explains the designation for military operation if the military delivers aid?

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Do you have a source that explains the designation for military operation if the military delivers aid?

You won’t find any because no one wants to get near having their military force in Israel for any reason. It’s political suicide (not to mention the fact America’s armed forces are already short personnel).

disguy_ovahea,

Again, the US military is already facilitating the transport for the aid. It’s being delivered by a humanitarian organization, with the help of the US military.

Also, the US armed forces have not left Israel. They have maintained consistent presence since the early ‘90s. The only two active military installations in Israel are American bases.

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