US aid deliveries to Gaza by sea suspended after makeshift pier damaged

TEL AVIV — The U.S. military was forced to halt aid deliveries by sea to the Gaza Strip after its makeshift pier system off Gaza’s coast was damaged in bad weather, a United Nations official, a U.S. official and an Israeli official told NBC News.

The damage affected a causeway leading to the beach in Gaza, the officials said. Aid supplies are being brought onto the causeway in small boats after first being unloaded on the giant floating jetty. The UN official said repairs could take a week.

An official statement from the US is expected on Tuesday. The US Central Command declined to comment when asked by NBC News.

The damage is the latest setback for the temporary pier system, which President Joe Biden first announced in his State of the Union address in March and which only began operating two weeks ago.

Over the weekend, four small US military boats carrying aid were torn from their moorings in bad weather, the US Central Command said. Two of them were washed ashore on the coast of southern Israel near the city of Ashdod, while the other two were stranded in Gaza.

A U.S. soldier was also in critical condition in an Israeli hospital after suffering non-combat-related injuries on the pier last week, a U.S. defense official said. Two other soldiers suffered minor injuries.

The makeshift pier, known in military jargon as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) facility, is designed to bring more humanitarian aid to Gaza and help avert a famine that the UN says has broken out in the north of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Aid ships are inspected by Israeli security officials in Cyprus before heading to the makeshift pier several miles off the coast of Gaza.

The first sign of problems with the dam came from a video that appeared on Israeli social media on Monday. In the footage, a man, believed to be an Israeli soldier in Gaza, filmed what appeared to be a piece of the dam floating in the Mediterranean Sea.

“Look what’s happening to the American ship – it’s just disconnected and practically submerged,” the man said in Hebrew. “Everything is sinking.”

In the video, at least one truck appeared to be on the severed section of the dam.

At full capacity, the pier will be able to deliver up to 150 trucks full of relief supplies every day, the Pentagon said.

The US military has also parachuted aid into Gaza, but this approach has been criticized as costly and ineffective, especially compared to land crossings controlled by Egypt and Israel.

The new hurdles to helping beleaguered Palestinians emerged after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced last week that he was calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister. The court also announced that it was calling for arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders.

The ICC accuses Israeli leaders of criminal responsibility for a series of “war crimes,” including starving civilians.

Israel strongly denies the allegations and pointed to the pier as evidence that it is working to supply Gaza with food by sea, air and land.