Biden to announce U.S. will construct a port on Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aid

A general view over the Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Jan. 8, 2024, in southern Israel. Amir Levy/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to use his State of the Union address Thursday night to announce that the U.S. military will build port infrastructure on the Gaza Strip coast to allow humanitarian aid to arrive by sea.

Senior White House officials briefed reporters earlier in the day on the plan that they say will require no American boots on the ground in Gaza, where starvation after five months of the Israel-Hamas war has reached disastrous levels, nongovernmental agencies warn.

Rather, an unspecified number of U.S. troops will construct what officials described as a pier or causeway from an offshore military vessel.

“The U.S. military has unique capabilities, and they can do things from just offshore that are extraordinary,” a senior White House official said on the call. “And so that is the concept of operations that the president has been briefed on that he is going to authorize and then we will work here over the coming days to get this underway.”

The plan will be done in partnership with allies, including with the Israelis who will provide security on the ground and the United Nations and other nongovernmental organizations that will coordinate distribution of shipments, Biden administration officials said.

The U.S. construction will enable delivery of shipments from Cyprus, the Mediterranean island nation that initially proposed the plan last year.

“This new significant capability will take a number of weeks to plan and execute,” a senior official said, without providing a specific timeline.

“The forces that will be required to complete this mission are either already in the region or will begin to move there soon. We look forward to working with our close partners and allies in Europe, the Middle East and beyond to build a coalition of countries that will contribute capabilities and funding for this initiative,” the official said.

Biden’s announcement comes a week after more than 100 Palestinians died and hundreds were injured in a rush to aid trucks along a coastal road just southwest of Gaza City. Palestinian health authorities maintain many died from bullets fired by Israeli forces, which Israel denies. Other witnesses have said most killed were run over by trucks.

The United Nations warned this week that hunger in the Gaza Strip “has reached catastrophic levels.”

The agency is pushing for a plan to transport aid into the Gaza Strip’s northern area via a military access road. White House officials told reporters that the U.N. confirmed Thursday that a first delivery using the northern route will occur this week.

Pressures on administration

Biden continues to face pressure as negotiations over a temporary cease-fire and releases of Israeli hostages have stalled.

Voters in numerous primary states cast “uncommitted” ballots as recently as the Democratic 2024 Super Tuesday presidential nominating contests, apparently as a protest of Biden’s continued support of Israel’s bombardment in the Gaza Strip.

While just a tiny fraction of the delegate count, Biden lost 11 delegates to “uncommitted” in Minnesota Tuesday, seven in Hawaii Wednesday and two in Michigan last month.

White House officials said Thursday the onus is on Hamas. The Gaza-based militant group has so far refused to agree to a deal during ongoing negotiations in Cairo, Egypt.

“It is essential that we see a temporary cease-fire in Gaza. The path to a cease-fire is straightforward,” a senior White House official said. “There could be at least a six-week cease-fire today if Hamas would agree to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, including women, elderly, sick and the wounded. That deal is on the table now and has been for more than the past week.”

Thursday marks five months of fighting in the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 in Israel and initially taking roughly 200 hostages into the Hamas-controlled territory.

The Gaza health ministry estimates the death toll in the small strip of land bordered by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea has surpassed 30,000.

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