WASHINGTON: The US military is to set up a temporary port in Gaza so that more aid can get into the beleaguered territory by sea, President Joe Biden will say in his State of the Union speech Thursday.
The move will not involve any US boots on the ground in Gaza, however, as military personnel will stay offshore while other allies are involved, senior administration officials said.
“We’re not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership,” one official told reporters, amid growing frustration in the White House with Israel’s failure to allow more relief into the territory.
“Tonight the president will announce in his State of the Union address that he has directed the US military to undertake an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza,” the official said.
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“This port, the main feature of which is a temporary pier, will provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day.”
US officials said it would take a “number of weeks” until the “significant capability” was able to bring more aid to desperate Gazans.
The aid will come via a maritime corridor bringing aid by sea from the port of Larnaca, on Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
US officials were careful to stress that American troops would not be on the ground in Gaza, which has been under relentless Israeli bombardment since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
They did not specify exactly how the port would work without American personnel on the ground in Gaza, but implied that “partners and allies” plus the UN and aid groups would be involved on shore.
“The US military has unique capabilities. And they can do things from just offshore that are extraordinary and so that is the concept of operations that the president has been briefed on,” a second official said.
A third official said the plan “involves the presence of US military personnel on military vessels offshore but it does not require US military personnel that go ashore to install the pier, or causeway facility.”
The Israelis had been informed and the US would work with them on security requirements, they added.
The announcement during the key State of the Union speech underscores the acute political pressure Biden is under for his steadfast support for Israel, despite the mounting Gaza death toll and humanitarian crisis.
Biden announced last week that the US was beginning airdrops of aid to Gaza, following an incident in which more than 100 people were killed at an aid station in the north of the territory.
Efforts to reach a six-week ceasefire in Gaza were continuing, with officials reiterating that the “onus is on Hamas” to agree to release Israeli hostages captured in the attack.
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