{"id":11167,"date":"2024-03-10T08:04:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T08:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/03\/10\/us-military-ship-heading-to-gaza-to-build-port\/"},"modified":"2024-03-10T08:04:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T08:04:16","slug":"us-military-ship-heading-to-gaza-to-build-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/us-military-ship-heading-to-gaza-to-build-port\/","title":{"rendered":"US military ship heading to Gaza to build port"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 10 \u2013 A US military ship is sailing towards the Middle East, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, the army says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The support ship, General Frank S Besson, set sail from a military base in the state of Virginia on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It comes after President Joe Biden said the US would build the floating harbour to help get aid into Gaza by sea.<\/p>\n

The UN has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is \u201calmost inevitable\u201d and children are starving to death.<\/p>\n

Aid deliveries by land and air have proved difficult and dangerous.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0World Food Programme had to pause land deliveries<\/a>\u00a0after its convoys came under gunfire and looting. And on Friday,\u00a0there were reports that five people had been killed<\/a>\u00a0by a falling aid package, when its parachute failed to open properly.<\/p>\n

The US ship departed \u201cless than 36 hours\u201d after Mr Biden made his announcement, US Central Command wrote on X.<\/p>\n

It is \u201ccarrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies\u201d to Gaza, the statement continued.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has said it could take up to 60 days to build the pier with the help of 1,000 troops \u2013 none of whom would go ashore.<\/p>\n

Charities have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0an aid ship laden with some 200 tonnes of food<\/a>\u00a0was still waiting for clearance to set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

It is hoped the vessel, Open Arms, will be able to depart before Monday, following an EU announcement that a new sea route would be opened over the weekend to allow aid to sail directly from Cyprus \u2013 the closest EU country to Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Open Arms aid ship has been ready to depart for weeks, the charity\u2019s founder has said<\/p>\n

The ship belongs to the Spanish charity of the same name, Open Arms, and the food on board has been provided by US charity World Central Kitchen.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how any aid delivered by sea would get safely to shore before the US pier is built. Gaza has no functioning port and its surrounding waters are too shallow for large vessels.<\/p>\n

However Oscar Camps, the founder of Open Arms, told the Associated Press that at the destination point \u2013 which remains a secret \u2013 a team from the World Central Kitchen has been building a pier to receive the aid.<\/p>\n

Israel has welcomed the ocean initiative, and said aid would be delivered after security checks were carried out in Cyprus \u201cin accordance with Israeli standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military launched an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip after Hamas\u2019s attacks on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n

More than 30,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory\u2019s Hamas-run health ministry says.<\/p>\n

The conflict has created a growing humanitarian crisis, and the UN has warned that at least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip \u2013 one quarter of the population \u2013 are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.<\/p>\n

Western countries have pressed Israel to expand land deliveries by facilitating more routes and opening additional crossings.<\/p>\n

Lorries have been entering the south of Gaza through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. But the north, which was the focus of the first phase of the Israeli ground offensive, has been largely cut off from assistance in recent months.<\/p>\n

An estimated 300,000 Palestinians are living there with little food or clean water.<\/p>\n

Israel has been accused of hampering aid efforts, and an independent UN expert last week accused it of mounting \u201ca starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yeela Cytrin, a legal adviser at the Israeli mission to the UN, responded that \u201cIsrael utterly rejects allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war\u201d, before walking out in protest.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 10 \u2013 A US military ship is sailing towards the Middle East, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, the army says. The support ship, General Frank S Besson, set sail from a military base in the state of Virginia on Saturday. It comes after President Joe Biden said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}