Biden authorized troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned of weather and security challenges, watchdog finds

(CNN) — President Joe Biden authorized the troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned the humanitarian aid effort would face weather challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and security problems in an active war zone, according to a newly released government watchdog report.

Officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) also feared that focusing on the pier would distract from the larger effort to reopen land crossings into Gaza, seen as a far more efficient and well-established method of moving large quantities of humanitarian supplies.

Plagued by bad weather and recurring security problems, the $230 million pier operated for only 20 days over a two-month span, delivering a fraction of its intended aid, the USAID inspector general report found. Instead of delivering enough food for 500,000 Palestinians each month for three months, the pier only delivered enough aid for 450,000 for a single month.

During its operation, the pier delivered 19.4 million pounds of aid to Gaza, the deputy commander of US Central Command, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters after the pier shut down.

Biden, who announced the pier during his State of the Union address in March, acknowledged the pier had not lived up to expectations, saying he was “disappointed” during a press conference in July. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said.

The pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), began operations on May 17. But it was operational for roughly a week before it broke apart in heavy seas, the first of several times weather forced the pier to stop operating. The Defense Department intended to use the pier for three months before the seas would make the operation unsustainable, but “rough seas and high winds began earlier than anticipated,” the report found, curtailing the period in which the pier could be effectively used.

JLOTS can only operate effectively in “short and moderate waves,” the report said, even though the Mediterranean Sea often has “significant wind and waves.” A DOD expert on JLOTS brought up these weather issues at the planning kick-off meeting, according to the report.

The Gaza war was the first time the Pentagon used the temporary pier to support a humanitarian effort in an active war zone with major security challenges, the report said.

Throughout the pier’s operation, the administration defended it as a viable means of flowing humanitarian aid to those who needed it most. The pier was part of a larger effort to get aid into Gaza, one that was complicated by the frequent closure of land crossings into the coastal enclave.

“The temporary pier was part of a comprehensive response to the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, which also included delivering aid via land crossings and air drops, and it had a real impact – delivering nearly 20 million pounds of food and water that otherwise would not have gone to those in desperate need,” National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement to CNN.

Even when it was operating, crowded roads and land routes that constantly changed made it difficult to operate the pier effectively. The US military was in regular communication with the Israeli military, as well as the World Food Programme (WFP), which was in charge of distributing aid once it was delivered to the beach in Gaza.

According to the report, WFP and USAID staff cited “multiple instances” of the looting of aid convoys, attacks on WFP warehouses and drivers being detained or shot. In addition, planned distribution routes could quickly become evacuation zones “within a matter of hours” based on Israeli military operations, forcing officials to change transportation plans.

The Defense Department dedicated more than 1,000 US soldiers and sailors to the operation, as well as several ships.

During the pier mission, three US service members were also injured. While two experienced minor injuries and were returned to duty the same day, the third service member was in critical condition and was transferred back to the US in June to be treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The pier became somewhat of a focal point of attacks on Biden, with Republican members of Congress criticizing the operation and its frequent pauses.

In June, GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to senior Biden administration officials in which he said the temporary pier “has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars.”

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