President Joe Biden gave the green light to build the now-infamous Gaza aid pier despite warnings that the plan could misfire, according to an investigation report released on Tuesday.
The $230 million floating pier, built by the U.S. military in May at the behest of the Biden administration, served as a causeway for aid delivery via a maritime route in the Mediterranean Sea, but faced immediate security and weather-related challenges and was forced to close early in July. Pentagon and U.S. officials warned of these challenges before the pier was opened, but the Biden administration moved forward with the operation regardless, according to an investigation report released by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Inspector General (OIG).
“From the start, rough weather posed a major challenge to the success of [the pier’s] operations,” the report reads, noting that the pier was never designed to operate in the Mediterranean’s often choppy and high-state sea conditions. “At the [pier] planning kick-off meeting a [Department of Defense] expert discussed weather issues and structural challenges to the pier’s sustainability.”
Security problems also hampered the pier’s ability to get aid into Gaza, according to the report. The top aid organization on the ground in Gaza stopped making deliveries from the pier landing site in June due to these problems, which included “multiple instances of looting after aid was collected from the beach and transported into Gaza, attacks on [World Food Program] warehouses, and drivers being detained or shot.”
Fears that security challenges would obstruct the ability to deliver aid from the pier were relayed before it ever opened, according to the report. Moreover, officials expressed concern that the pier would undermine efforts to get aid into Gaza via more effective routes, specifically through land crossings.
“Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns that the focus on using [the pier] would detract from the Agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza,” the report reads. “However, once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use [the pier] as effectively as possible.”
The pier fell under scrutiny before and after it was opened due to the challenges it faced and the danger it put U.S. military personnel in.
Biden said at a press conference in July that he was “disappointed that some of the things that I’ve put forward have not succeeded.” Regarding the pier, Biden said at the conference he was “hopeful that [it] would be more successful.”
“We recognized at the outset that there would be challenges as part of this in this complex emergency. But when it was all said and done, 1,000 soldiers and sailors deployed to assist in the transfer of nearly 20 million pounds of aid across a temporary pier for the people of Gaza,” a U.S. defense official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As with any operation the department participates in, we will review all aspects of this JLOTS mission to identify lessons learned for potential future use.”
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