WASHINGTON — White House spokesman John Kirby insisted Tuesday that the badly damaged temporary pier that President Biden unveiled in his State of the Union address will resume aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip — while arguing it was never meant to be the primary method of delivering food and supplies.
“Does the president still believe that the temporary pier is a viable platform to get aid into Gaza?” a reporter asked at the regular White House briefing as the US military prepares to detach and move the storm-battered $320 million floating dock to the Israeli city of Ashdod for repairs.
“Absolutely, as a supplement,” Kirby replied, despite the pier closing after only about 10 days as Israel fights Hamas terrorists in their final bastion of Rafah.
“It was never intended to supplant what you can do on the ground, through trucks and getting those crossings open — we said that from the get-go,” Kirby insisted — despite the facility being a signature announcement in Biden’s annual speech to Congress on March 7.
“We also said it’s going to be tough. It’s been tough. Weather plays a role. I mean, Mother Nature has a say here. And the Eastern Med, even in the summertime can be a pretty rough place, and that’s what’s happening right now,” Kirby went on.
“But can it be a force multiplier? Can it add to? Absolutely, and I think they’ve so far gotten more than a thousand metric tons in just off the temporary pier alone.”
The spokesman said that the pier has had “an impressive record so far,” even though USAID initially estimated that the pier would unload between 290 million tons and 750 million tons per day.
Last week, meanwhile, the Pentagon admitted that none of the estimated 569 metric tons of aid ha been delivered to Palestinian civilians, but had been “intercepted” by looters and terrorist groups
Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday that repairs to the pier will take “at least over a week.”
Biden announced the pier as he faced increasing criticism from fellow Democrats about the impact of Israel’s invasion on more than 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
“Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” Biden told lawmakers in a joint session of Congress..
“No US boots will be on the ground. This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.”
