The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced that the construction of 50% of the sea pier in the Gaza Strip has been completed, and while Washington indicated that the pier would operate within a week, the Government Information Office in Gaza said that the number of aid trucks that entered the Strip last month was not sufficient. 

A senior American official told Al Jazeera that Israel will not have any role in the port, except for delivering equipment for its establishment, indicating that the port that his country is establishing on the coast of Gaza will be for humanitarian purposes only.

The American official stressed that Israel will not use the port for military or other purposes.

Politico website quoted an American official as saying that Washington expects the American military port to begin operations next Friday to transport aid to Gaza. He added that aid may begin flowing to the American military port and then to Gaza next Saturday or Sunday.

In the same context, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is currently visiting Israel, confirmed that the pier will be operated within one week.

Blinken indicated that a shipment of American flour arrived at the port of Ashdod in preparation for its entry into the Gaza Strip, explaining that the quantity is sufficient for one and a half million Palestinians for 6 months.

The American minister said that his country is working to ensure the effective distribution of aid inside Gaza and “not to be obstructed by Hamas,” as he claimed.

Blinken had visited the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, to inspect the crossing of aid trucks, according to Agence France-Presse.

Blinken arrived at Kerem Shalom, which is one of the Israeli crossings with Gaza, and is located kilometers away from the city of Rafah in the south of the Strip, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are located.

The US Secretary's aides said that during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he raised concerns about the pace of bringing aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, which is threatened by famine in light of the Israeli aggression that has continued for 7 months.

Blinken had indicated that there was “real and important progress, but more efforts still need to be done” to get aid in.

Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing last December following American pressure, after it had refused for a long time to allow aid trucks to enter through it, and was content to allow this through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip.

Erez-Beit Hanoun crossing

Last April, Israel agreed to allow the entry of aid allocated to Gaza through the port of Ashdod, and now allows aid to enter through the Erez-Beit Hanoun crossing in the north.

This comes at a time when the Israeli occupation army announced that it opened the Erez-Beit Hanoun crossing in the northern Gaza Strip today, Wednesday, for the first time since the aggression on the Strip to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip.

The Israeli army said that 30 Jordanian trucks were entered through the crossing, after being subjected to a strict security inspection, and the aid included food supplies and medical equipment, and indicated that the step was inspired by the political level in Israel after the completion of engineering works that were carried out in the region during recent weeks.

The United Nations and relief organizations confirm that this sea corridor, in addition to other methods of transporting aid such as airdrops, cannot replace its delivery by land.