PALESTINE
Mon 24 Jun 2024 9:21 pm - Jerusalem Time
Washington “temporarily” stops delivering aid to Gaza via the floating dock
The US Central Command (Centcom) announced on Monday that it had “temporarily” stopped delivering aid to Gaza via the floating dock, which did not amount to 1 percent of the Strip’s food needs.
Centcom added, in a statement, that “the operations of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) have continued without interruption since the re-anchoring of the floating dock off the coast of the Strip on June 19. Today, operations on the dock will temporarily stop to conduct maintenance activities as scheduled.”
The statement stated, "Over the past weekend, US Central Command delivered 1,384 metric tons of aid to Gaza via the dock."
It pointed out that "more than 6,206 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered to Gaza via the floating dock, since it began operating on May 17."
On March 8, US President Joe Biden announced the decision to establish a temporary naval pier, claiming that it would be used to deliver food and aid to the Palestinians, in light of the severe Israeli restrictions on the arrival of aid from land crossings.
On May 17, work began on the floating dock, but after about a week, it was damaged by waves, which required it to be dismantled and transported to Ashdod for repair.
On June 7, Centcom said it had repaired the structure of the Gaza floating dock and reconnected it to the Gaza Strip’s shore.
For its part, the government media office in the Gaza Strip accused Israel of using the American floating dock on the Gaza coast to “prepare and launch to carry out security and military missions.”
The director of the office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, said during a press conference on Monday that among these tasks was “committing the crime of the Nuseirat camp massacre (carried out by Israel on June 8, during which 274 Palestinians were killed).”
He explained, "This pier had a major military and security role in this horrific massacre," and he believed that the pier "did not provide 1 percent of the food needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip."
On June 10, the Pentagon denied that Israel used the floating dock during its operation to liberate 4 of its prisoners in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, a claim rejected by the authorities in the Gaza Strip.
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Washington “temporarily” stops delivering aid to Gaza via the floating dock