Biden authorized troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned of weather and security challenges, watchdog finds
CNN
President Joe Biden authorized the troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned the humanitarian aid effort would face weather challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and security problems in an active war zone, according to a newly released government watchdog report.
President Joe Biden authorized the troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned the humanitarian aid effort would face weather challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and security problems in an active war zone, according to a newly released government watchdog report. Officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) also feared that focusing on the pier would distract from the larger effort to reopen land crossings into Gaza, seen as a far more efficient and well-established method of moving large quantities of humanitarian supplies. Plagued by bad weather and recurring security problems, the $230 million pier operated for only 20 days over a two-month span, delivering a fraction of its intended aid, the USAID inspector general report found. Instead of delivering enough food for 500,000 Palestinians each month for three months, the pier only delivered enough aid for 450,000 for a single month. During its operation, the pier delivered 19.4 million pounds of aid to Gaza, the deputy commander of US Central Command, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters after the pier shut down. Biden, who announced the pier during his State of the Union address in March, acknowledged the pier had not lived up to expectations, saying he was “disappointed” during a press conference in July. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said. The pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), began operations on May 17. But it was operational for roughly a week before it broke apart in heavy seas, the first of several times weather forced the pier to stop operating. The Defense Department intended to use the pier for three months before the seas would make the operation unsustainable, but “rough seas and high winds began earlier than anticipated,” the report found, curtailing the period in which the pier could be effectively used.
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