The U.S. has dispatched eight Army and Navy vessels from Virginia to build a temporary pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this work: to supply food and other necessary items for Palestinians as the war between Israel and Hamas continues and the resulting humanitarian crisis worsens.

Even before Oct. 7, 2023, and the massacre by Hamas of Israeli citizens that sparked the war, about 80% of Palestinians in Gaza relied on foreign humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, including food. Now, the United Nations is warning that half of Palestinians in Gaza face famine within the next few months.

The new pier, which is expected to be operational sometime in May 2024, could help deliver 2 million meals a day to Gaza’s estimated 2.2 million residents.

A complex set of factors, including limited entryways into Gaza, Israeli restrictions on what enters Gaza, poor road conditions and security concerns, have resulted in aid groups being unable to deliver sufficient amounts of food to people in Gaza. Israel says it is not directly obstructing aid deliveries, but some critics – including South Africa, which is bringing a genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice – disagree.

The U.N. is pressing for Israel to approve food truck convoys run by the main U.N. aid agency supporting people in Gaza, known by the acronym UNRWA, which Israel announced on March 25, 2024, that it would no longer work with.

Feeding the entire population of Gaza would require a ninetyfold increase in daily deliveries of food by air drops and 500 daily trucks, instead of the dozen or so vehicles that enter Gaza each day.

As a former White House national security aide and former U.S. diplomat, I understand the internal workings of the civilian-military sides of constructing a pier and other projects like this during war. I also am aware of the security dimensions that accompany this kind of endeavor.

The temporary pier could offer a partial solution to averting famine in Gaza. But the operation also involves complex logistics, high costs and security risks.

About 1,000 U.S. soldiers will construct this temporary port, which will serve as a relay site for food that comes by ship from Cyprus, before the goods are ferried by water into Gaza.

No U.S. soldiers are expected to set foot in Gaza. Government contractors will reportedly be responsible for moving products by boat across the approximately 3 miles that will separate the pier from Gaza.

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