USAid warned Joe Biden against building floating Gaza pier
The top US development agency warned President Joe Biden against building the floating pier for aid in Gaza, warning that it would undermine attempts to persuade Israel to allow land entry.
An inspector general report by USAid released on Tuesday said the agency warned that the $230m military-run project - known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore System (JLOTS) - would be difficult to implement and that land transport would be "more efficient".
"Multiple USAid staff expressed concerns that the focus on using JLOTS would detract from the agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza," said the report.
"However, once the president issued the directive, the agency’s focus was to use JLOTS as effectively as possible."
The pier, first announced in March and later anchored on 17 May, was initially scheduled to remain operational in Gaza until at least 31 July.
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According to US Central Command, the system had delivered over $20m of aid to Gaza. However, the pier was forced to close several times after it broke down and needed repairs.
In total, the pier was only operational for fewer than 25 days, and aid groups only used it for half that time.
The UN World Food Programme paused its operations there in June, citing security concerns.
The pause in operations came after Israeli forces entered the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in disguise and using a commercial truck.
Israeli forces came out of the truck and launched a planned hostage rescue operation, which led to a massacre of at least 274 Palestinians at the expense of securing four hostages.
Aid groups and former US officials described the pier as a means to divert attention away from Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza, as well as Israel's restriction of aid to Palestinians in the area.
"This pier has been an immense and costly distraction from the work that we need to do and the problems we need to solve," Scott Paul, who leads humanitarian policy at Oxfam, previously told Middle East Eye.
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