According to the Pentagon, the long-talked-about humanitarian dock, which the US military is installing in the Gaza Strip, is currently being constructed and is expected to be ready to receive initial shipments of food and other aid early next month. , according to US military officials.

Efforts will include delivering aid to the Strip via a sea corridor in a complex, multi-step process, which was announced last March.

A senior military official said in a Pentagon call with reporters last Thursday that a thousand American soldiers and sailors will participate in the dock project. The official said the pier will initially enable the transport of about 90 truckloads of aid per day, and will eventually reach 150 truckloads per day at full capacity.

US authorities said that the dock aims to complement current aid deliveries over the ground, not replace them. UN data suggests ground deliveries have risen slightly in recent weeks but remain far short of the enclave's massive needs. Dozens of Gazans have died from causes related to malnutrition and dehydration, and the United Nations World Food Program said that half of Gaza's population of 2.2 million people are exposed to famine within six weeks.

Once the aid reaches shore, the relief organizations that will distribute it inside Gaza will face familiar risks and obstacles amid the ongoing Israeli bombing.

A spokesman for the US Agency for International Development, which is working closely with the military to coordinate plans for the dock, said that some of the items that will come through the sea corridor will include nutrient-dense types of food, which will be sourced from Dubai; Food for the treatment of acute malnutrition in children, which is obtained from Kenya; and relief supplies, including hygiene kits, coming from Europe.

Other countries and organizations will also contribute food and money, military officials said.

At the port of Larnaca, Israeli intelligence agents will be present to monitor and examine what Cypriot authorities are examining the items, according to an Israeli official familiar with the inspection plans.

The official said that inspection standards will be the same as those used at land crossings into Gaza. Aid officials said these inspections are exhaustive and sometimes arbitrary.

World Central Kitchen, a non-profit disaster relief organization, has tested the seaway twice before on a smaller scale last March. The loading, scanning and inspection process for these two ships took between two and three days each, according to Juan Camilo Jimenez Garces, the organization's regional director. The first ship, a partnership with the Spanish non-profit organization Open Arms, carried about 200 tons of aid, while the second carried more than 300 tons.

The approximately 250-mile journey from Cyprus to Gaza usually takes about 15 hours, or a full day of travel, but can take up to two days depending on the weight of the shipment and the type of ship. For example, the Open Arms ship, which towed its cargo on a separate platform rather than carrying it on board, made the trip in about three days.

Ships can also be delayed due to unfavorable weather conditions. This was one of the factors that led to World Central Kitchen's second ship, the Jennifer, being delayed for almost two weeks in Larnaca after it was scheduled to depart.

Gaza does not have an international seaport; the Israeli occupation authorities prevented the construction of a port for many decades. Because the nearshore waters are too shallow for large ships to approach the humanitarian pier directly, the United States is also building a floating platform two miles offshore, where ships carrying aid will unload their cargo first.

The Army's small ships, known as LCUs (for "landing facilities") and LSV.s (for "logistics support vessels"), will move the aid in batches from platform to dock.

At least 14 American ships will be involved in building and operating the pier, according to a military official, some carrying the necessary heavy machinery and equipment. U.S. service members will build the pier at sea, using modular modules eight feet wide and 20 or 40 feet long, and a long ferry will tow it to shore. Israeli forces will then install it on the beach in northern Gaza to ensure that there are no American forces on the ground.

Humanitarian aid officials involved in receiving and distributing aid have sought to keep their interactions with the Israeli military as limited as possible.

The US Agency for International Development said last week that the World Food Program would help distribute aid inside Gaza after it arrives at the dock.

Trucks coordinated by aid groups will move the aid from a secure area near the pier to UN warehouses, of which there are more than 20 across Gaza, and then eventually to hundreds of community kitchens, shelters, smaller warehouses and other distribution points across the region.

The majority of distribution points are located in southern Gaza, where most residents have been forced to evacuate, but population experts estimate that several hundred thousand people remain.

Aid officials stressed that the most effective way to deliver aid to Gaza remains via land, and expressed concern that the dock would distract from efforts to increase the amount of aid delivered by land.

Many previous attempts to deliver aid to Gazans have ended in deadly tragedy. This month, Israel bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven of the group's aid workers. Israel also bombed an aid depot on at least one occasion, a strike it said was aimed at killing a Hamas leader.

Relief experts say that the hunger crisis in Gaza is man-made, citing the decades-long blockade of the Strip by Israel and supported by Egypt, the almost complete blockade imposed by Israel after October 7, and the tight restrictions on the entry of aid trucks since then. The United Nations said that Israel's restrictions on aid, destruction of infrastructure and displacement of Gazans may amount to the use of starvation as a war tactic.

Israel responded, with its officials blaming UN relief agencies for failing to distribute aid effectively. They also said that Hamas, which rules Gaza and is considered a terrorist organization, is systematically seizing aid. David Satterfield, the US special envoy for humanitarian aid, said in February that Israel had not provided specific evidence of the theft or diversion of UN aid.

At the same time, the humanitarian crisis continued to worsen more seriously. Many Gazans have died while seeking help, including more than 100 who were killed while trying to get food from an aid convoy, according to Gaza health officials, and more than a dozen who drowned while retrieving air-dropped aid that fell into the sea.