US President Joe Biden will announce to Congress on Thursday that he has ordered the US military to establish a port in Gaza to deliver more humanitarian aid by sea to the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel, according to reports. senior officials.
“Tonight, the president will announce in his State of the Union address that he has ordered the U.S. military to conduct an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza
,” said one senior American official to journalists.
This port must be able to accommodate large ships carrying
“food, water, medicine and temporary shelters”
, he said.
“The main element will be a temporary jetty
,” he added, and this port will provide the equivalent capacity of
“hundreds of additional aid trucks every day
. ”
This operation
"will take a number of weeks to plan and execute"
, and is expected to involve a maritime corridor bringing aid by sea from the island of Cyprus, senior officials said.
There will be no American soldiers in Gaza
They stressed that this would not mean that American troops would be on site in Gaza.
“The US military has unique capabilities.
And they can do things from the sea that are extraordinary
,” said another official.
This announcement, on the day of the president's major State of the Union address, illustrates the pressures Joe Biden faces regarding American support for Israel, in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The United States and Jordan carried out a third airdrop of aid to Gaza in a week on Thursday, but the drops have had limited effectiveness.
According to the UN, famine is
“almost inevitable”
for 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza, the vast majority of the population, with humanitarian aid currently only arriving in trickles.