The Senate opposes the establishment of a dock in Gaza: “a dangerous effort with marginal benefit”

The construction of a wharf in front of Gaza for the transfer of humanitarian aid is expected to cost the US military about $320 million, an American defense source told Reuters. According to the Pentagon, the construction efforts will require about 1,000 American soldiers, most of them from the army and navy. The amount is double the initial estimates at the beginning of the year.

“The cost didn’t just go up. It skyrocketed,” Republican Senator Roger Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters. “This dangerous effort, whose benefit is marginal, will cost the American taxpayers at least 320 million dollars, for the continuous operation of only 90 days.”

President Joe Biden announced the establishment of the platform in March, following a demand by aid organizations from Israel to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza by land. Senior officials of the Biden administration hope that the opening of the second route for aid will prevent starvation in northern Gaza.

The war caused a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million residents live. Even so, Wicker and other lawmakers have questioned whether the dock is a worthwhile endeavor, especially given the risk that US military personnel will be hit by Hamas fire. Concerns grew when on Thursday rockets were fired near the area designated for the dock. The American forces were found miles off the coast, out of mortar range. Biden ordered the troops not to set foot on the Gaza coast.

Initially 90 trucks per day will be transferred at the wharf, and later the number may reach 150 trucks per day. The UN said last week that the daily average of trucks entering Gaza in April was 200, with a record number of 316 entering on Monday.

A senior official in the Biden administration said last week that humanitarian aid leaving the terminal would have to go through Israeli land barriers, although Israel is also checking the aid in Cyprus. The UN has previously complained about difficulties in receiving aid and distributing it throughout Gaza. The UN estimates that answering the most urgent needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip until December is expected to cost 2.5 billion dollars.