The pier was attached back to the Gaza beach after the causeway, the part that connects to the shore, was broken apart during high winds and heavy seas on May 25.
U.S. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. military was “moving with a sense of urgency” to re-open the pier to deliver critical humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“We want to seize this opportunity and get the aid to the people as quickly as possible,” he said.
The pier is just one point of access for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, but in its roughly weeklong operation before it broke apart, more than 2 million pounds of aid entered the territory.
Cooper said he expects 1 million pounds of aid to be delivered over every two-day period once operations resume.
The Gaza pier has cost the U.S. about $230 million, which includes the cost of repairing it. Still, that figure is down $90 million from an initial estimate.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said continuing operations with the pier was a “bad idea.”
“It continues to put U.S. troops in harm’s way without any plan for ensuring that aid is delivered successfully to Gazans in need,” said Wicker, calling it an “irresponsible” and “expensive experiment.”
Cooper acknowledged concerns that the pier could face more trouble from bad weather but stressed the U.S. military had backup plans.
“We do have a series of contingency plans to adjust and adapt to the weather,” he said.
Israel controls all of the crossings into Gaza, where Palestinians are struggling to access food and water as Israeli forces wage war against militant group Hamas, and says it is doing everything possible to get aid into the strip.
But aid remains far below what civilians need.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update that 9 out of 10 children are experiencing severe food poverty in Gaza.
The office also said that recent Israeli military activities, including in the southern city of Rafah, “have significantly destabilized humanitarian aid flows, forcing UN and partners to reorganize the entire operation.”
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