Four American military ships with around 100 soldiers on board left this Tuesday (12) towards the coast of the Gaza Strip, carrying materials to build a temporary port to allow the distribution of more humanitarian aid.
The initiative is part of efforts by the United States to increase assistance to civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory, where aid arriving by trucks has been reduced amid intense Israeli military operations and there are currently severe shortages of food, water and medicines.
The mission’s main boat – a hulking gray logistical support ship – pulled away from the military base in Virginia playing the Imperial March from the movie Star Wars over its loudspeakers.
The vessel was accompanied by three other smaller ships, which will also make the almost 30-day crossing to the eastern Mediterranean.
The new facilities include an offshore platform to transfer humanitarian aid loads from large ships to smaller ones, and a pier to unload aid on land.
The project is expected to be operational “within 60 days”, Brigadier General Brad Hinson told reporters.
“Once the mission is operational with all its capabilities, we will be able to bring up to two million meals a day to shore,” he assured.
American authorities assured that the mission does not involve deploying “troops on the ground”, but the military will approach the coastal territory during the assembly of the pier, which must be anchored to the shore.
Hinson did not reveal security aspects or what assistance the military will have to carry out this anchoring.
The current conflict exploded more than five months ago with the attack by commandos from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil, in which around 1,160 people died, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli data.
In response, Israel launched a fierce military campaign of reprisal that has so far left 31,112 people dead in Gaza alone, most of them civilians, according to Hamas, which governs the area.
To try to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, a first boat chartered by the Spanish NGO Open Arms and loaded with 200 tons of supplies set sail this Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, through a maritime corridor announced by the European Union.
The United States and other countries also launched packages of water and food from planes.
But sending aid by sea or air cannot replace supplies by land, insist the UN and different NGOs.
2024-03-13 01:15:04