- Written by Tiffany Wertheimer
- bbc news
image source, US Central Command
General Frank S. Besson transports the first equipment to build a floating port
According to the military, a U.S. warship is en route to the Middle East carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza.
The support ship General Frank S. Besson departed from a military base in Virginia on Saturday.
This comes after President Joe Biden said the US would build a floating port to deliver aid to Gaza by sea.
The United Nations has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” and that children are dying of starvation.
Delivery of aid by land and air has proven difficult and dangerous.
U.S. Central Command wrote on the X that the U.S. ship left port “less than 36 hours” after Biden's announcement.
The statement added: “We are transporting the first equipment to set up a temporary pier to deliver critical humanitarian supplies to Gaza.”
The Pentagon said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops, none of whom were scheduled to land.
Charities say those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long.
The Open Arms is expected to be able to set sail by Monday, following the EU's announcement over the weekend that it would open a new route to transport aid directly from Cyprus, the EU member state closest to Gaza.
image source, World Central Kitchen/Open Arms
The Open Arms rescue ship has been ready to set sail for several weeks, the charity's founder said.
The ship belonged to the Spanish charity Open Arms of the same name, and food on board was provided by the American charity World Central Kitchen.
It is unclear how aid delivered by sea will safely reach land before the U.S. pier is built. Gaza has no functioning port and the surrounding waters are shallow enough for large ships to pass through.
But Open Arms founder Oscar Camps told The Associated Press that at the destination — which is still a secret — the World Central Kitchen team is building a pier to receive the aid. He said there is.
Israel has welcomed the maritime initiative and said aid would be provided after safety inspections were carried out in Cyprus “in accordance with Israeli standards.”
Following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, Israeli forces launched air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
More than 30,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the region's Hamas-run health ministry.
The conflict has escalated the humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning that at least 576,000 people, a quarter of the population across the entire Gaza Strip, face catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Western countries are pressuring Israel to expand land transportation by facilitating more routes and opening additional borders.
The trucks enter southern Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of Israel's ground offensive, has been cut off from most aid in recent months.
An estimated 300,000 Palestinians live there with little food and clean water.
Israel has been accused of obstructing aid efforts, and an independent United Nations expert last week accused Israel of launching a “starvation campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Yera Sitrin, legal adviser to Israel's mission to the United Nations, left in protest, saying, “Israel completely rejects the allegation that it uses famine as a means of war.”
