Current:Home > BackFloating Gaza aid pier temporarily dismantled due to rough seas-LoTradeCoin
Floating Gaza aid pier temporarily dismantled due to rough seas
View Date:2024-12-23 19:26:25
Just a week after a temporary offshore pier designed to bring desperately-needed humanitarian aid into war-torn Gaza reopened following repairs, authorities announced Friday that it is being temporarily dismantled yet again because of rough seas.
U.S. Central Command announced Friday that the U.S.-built pier was being removed from Gaza's coast and towed back to Ashdod, Israel, to prevent it from being damaged. The pier will be "rapidly re-anchored" once water conditions are calm, CENTCOM said, but did not provide an estimate on when that would be.
"The decision to temporarily relocate the pier is not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the temporary pier can continue to deliver aid in the future," the agency said in a statement.
The pier, which carried an estimated construction cost of $320 million, according to the Pentagon, was preassembled at the port of Ashdod. It was first installed May 17 off the coast of Gaza, but was only operational for about one week before it was broken apart by heavy seas.
It underwent repairs and reopened to aid delivers on June 8 before shuttering again Friday.
Since it was first installed, about 7.7 million pounds of aid have been delivered to Gaza via the pier, CENTCOM reported.
In April, Defense Department officials said the pier was expected to deliver about 90 trucks worth of aid a day, ramping up to 150 per day at full capacity.
President Biden first announced the maritime aid corridor during his State of the Union address in March. Mr. Biden said no U.S. troops will set foot in Gaza. There are about 1,000 U.S. service members devoted to the maritime corridor operation just off the coast.
Earlier Friday, the State Department announced that it had sanctioned an Israeli extremist group known as Tsav 9 for conducting attacks on aid convoys in the occupied West Bank designed to prevent aid deliveries to Gaza.
— Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
- In:
- Hamas
- Israel
- Gaza Strip
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Jennifer Hudson, Kylie Minogue and Billy Porter to perform at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
- A Smart Grid Primer: Complex and Costly, but Vital to a Warming World
- Why Nick Jonas’ Performance With Kelsea Ballerini Caused Him to Go to Therapy
- 13 years after bariatric surgery, a 27-year-old says it changed her life
- Unexpected pairing: New documentary tells a heartwarming story between Vietnam enemies
- Vanderpump Rules' Ariana Madix Ready to Dip Out of Her and Tom Sandoval's $2 Million Home
- Tropical Storm Bret strengthens slightly, but no longer forecast as a hurricane
- Diet culture can hurt kids. This author advises parents to reclaim the word 'fat'
- My Little Pony finally hits the Toy Hall of Fame, alongside Phase 10 and Transformers
- Khartoum's hospital system has collapsed after cease-fire fails
Ranking
- Lala Kent Swears by This Virgo-Approved Accessory and Shares Why Stassi Schroeder Inspires Her Fall Style
- Medications Can Raise Heat Stroke Risk. Are Doctors Prepared to Respond as the Planet Warms?
- Key takeaways from Hunter Biden's guilty plea deal on federal tax, gun charges
- Alfonso Ribeiro's Wife Shares Health Update on 4-Year-Old Daughter After Emergency Surgery
- Auburn surges, while Kansas remains No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll
- Toddlers and Tiaras' Eden Wood Is All Grown Up Graduating High School As Valedictorian
- Here are the U.S. cities where rent is rising the fastest
- New Samsung Galaxy devices are coming—this is your last chance to pre-order and get $50 off
Recommendation
-
BITFII Introduce
-
Fear of pregnancy: One teen's story in post-Roe America
-
MLB trade deadline tracker: Will Angels deal Shohei Ohtani?
-
The truth about teens, social media and the mental health crisis
-
Armie Hammer Says His Mom Gifted Him a Vasectomy for His 38th Birthday
-
Why anti-abortion groups are citing the ideas of a 19th-century 'vice reformer'
-
Clean Power Startups Aim to Break Monopoly of U.S. Utility Giants
-
High Oil Subsidies Ensure Profit for Nearly Half New U.S. Investments, Study Shows