After three months of angst and just 20 days of actual operation, the US Navy’s temporary JLOTS pier off the coast of Gaza is being relocated to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
The US service members who have been operating the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, will soon redeploy back to the US, although the date has not yet been announced.
“The maritime service mission involving the pier is complete. There’s no more need to use the pier, particularly because we’re able to implement a more sustaining pathway through Ashdod,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command told reporters on Wednesday.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” he said.
Cooper said that during its short time on the Gaza coast, the pier facilitated the delivery of 19.4 million pounds of humanitarian aid.
“Israel has been fully supportive of this effort,” he added.
While Israel was “fully supportive” the Gazans were not, with Hamas terrorists and their allied gangs attacking the pier and its personnel, and hijacking trucks delivering aid to Gazans after the supplies were offloaded to a marshalling site on the shore.
Recurring problems presented by high winds and choppy waves further hampered the efforts to keep the pier operational, at one point resulting in the pier breaking off its moorings, with its parts floating up the coast to Israel.
At this point, aid arriving via US vessels using the maritime corridor from Cyprus is being received by US personnel at the port in Ashdod, where it will be offloaded to trucks for delivery through the Erez land crossing into Gaza.
There are multiple land crossings from Israel now being used to facilitate delivery of the aid into Gaza; the lone crossing from Egypt into Gaza, the Rafah Crossing, was shut down by Egypt — with whom Israel has a peace treaty — when the Israel Defense Forces seized control over the area during defensive operations in southern Gaza.
