US port plan to step up aid delivery to Gaza criticised as ‘distraction’

A United States plan to build a temporary port off Gaza’s coast to step up the delivery of humanitarian aid has been criticised as an attempt to divert attention from hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians and Israel’s consistent blocking of assistance to the enclave.

US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union speech on Thursday that he was directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to set up a “temporary pier” off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.

Planning for the operation, initially based on the island of Cyprus, does not envision the deployment of US military personnel in Gaza.

“No US boots will be on the ground,” Biden said.

While there has been growing criticism from the Biden administration of Israel severely restricting the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by land – prompting the US to airdrop 36,000 meals in northern Gaza – it continues to supply the Israeli military with weapons and remains a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden gave few logistical details, but US officials said the operation would “take a number of weeks to plan and execute”, and that the required US forces are in the region or would soon begin moving there. Washington would also coordinate with the Israeli army regarding the security situation on Gaza’s coast, they said.