TEHRAN- A United States plan to construct a port in Gaza with the purported aim of getting more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory by sea has been greeted with deep skepticism.

During his State of the Union address on Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to conduct the mission.  

Biden said the port will involve a temporary pier to transport supplies from ships at sea to the shore.

Following the speech, the Pentagon press secretary said the construction process requires 1,000 American troops and will take up to two months.

"Simply put, they'll establish a temporary offshore maritime pier that allows for shipping vessels to transfer cargo to smaller vessels to transport and offload cargo to a temporary causeway for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza," Patrick Ryder said.

Washington’s plan to establish the maritime corridor was rolled out days after the U.S. military began airdropping food into Gaza which turned deadly on Friday. Several people were killed in the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza by an aid airdrop package when one parachute failed to properly deploy and a parcel fell on them. 

Strong backlash 

Aid groups have criticized the U.S. plan to build the maritime corridor. They say it is time-consuming and inefficient compared with providing humanitarian assistance through land crossings.

The United Nations has warned that the roughly 2.3 million people in Gaza now face near-famine conditions as Israel maintains a total siege on the territory. The regime has strictly limited the entry of food, water, medicines and other supplies as Gazans, in particular children, face starvation. Israeli forces have also killed hungry Palestinians who wait for deliveries of food from aid trucks. 

"Children in Gaza cannot wait to eat. They are already dying from malnutrition and saving their lives is a matter of hours or days - not weeks," Save the Children said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, has also raised questions about the effectiveness of U.S. initiatives to get aid into Gaza.

The spokesperson of the UN agency told Al Jazeera that the focus on airdrops or maritime corridors neglects a simpler, more efficient way to deliver assistance.
“That is via the road, using the crossings,” Juliette Touma said. 

She added, “This is what we used before the war in Gaza when there was a regular flow of about 500 trucks per day, including commercial supplies.”

Her comments come as Israel has barred many aid trucks at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border.

Doctors Without Borders has also condemned the plan to get aid into Gaza by sea as a “glaring distraction” from Israel’s “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” military assault on the territory. 

“The food, the water and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border. Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies,” the executive director of MSF USA said in a post on X.

“This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the U.S. military to build a work-around, the U.S. should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist,” Avril Benoit added. 

Transporting aid by sea and airdrops is a poor substitute for deliveries by land. Undoubtedly, sending assistance through land corridors is a cheaper, viable and working alternative.

U.S. covert plans

The U.S. is capable of exerting pressure on Israel to allow aid into Gaza. But Washington continues to supply weapons to Israel and provide it with unwavering political support. This has emboldened Israel to prolong its war of genocide on Gaza and impose restrictions on entry of food into the territory. 

In the meantime, U.S. officials are expressing concerns over the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. However, their actions expose their hypocrisy. 

The establishment of the port is also in line with their hypocritical approaches. 

As the Pentagon press secretary outlined plans for establishing the port, he stressed that none of the American forces will enter Gaza at any time, including to deliver aid. 

“The concept that is being planned involves the presence of U.S. military personnel on military vessels offshore but does not require U.S. military personnel to go ashore,” Ryder said. 

The Pentagon official was echoing Biden’s words, who said during his State of the Union speech that, “No U.S. boots will be on the ground.”
Usurpingly, Israel welcomed the U.S. plan. 

The U.S. has always been seeking to expand its military presence in West Asia and beyond. The construction of the temporary port for getting aid into Gaza will provide Washington with an opportunity to use it as a military base. 

Consequently, the U.S. can provide increasing military support for Israel under the disguise of involvement in humanitarian aid operations. 
Likewise, Israel can also deploy its forces to the port to be immune from attacks carried out by resistance groups. 

PFLP warning

Such ulterior motives drew a reaction from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The PFLP warned the U.S. plan is "suspicious and dubious" and goes beyond the goal of aiding the Palestinian people. It said the move could open the door to executing other alarming objectives, such as forced displacement plans under humanitarian and other pretexts.

It also said the U.S. presence would be a legitimate target for the resistance.

Anti-U.S. sentiment is already high in West Asia over Washington’s support for Israel’s brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip.   

Undoubtedly, the presence of American military personnel near Gaza will lead to the spillover of the ongoing conflict to the entire region and U.S. soldiers will have to pay the price for such military adventurism.