Three U.S. service members have been injured supporting operations at the US Army’s over-the-shore logistics operations on the Gaza coast. None of the injuries were combat-related, but one servicemember is in critical condition and has been medevaced to an Israeli hospital. The evacuated servicemember was injured aboard the MV Benavidez, a Navy-owned and operated roll-on-roll-off ship. The other two have returned to duty.
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Joe Biden announced the pier to a stunned nation on March 7.
BACKGROUND:
Biden to Announce US Will Build New Port in Gaza for Aid Deliveries During SOTU Speech – RedState
A Man, a Plan… A Temporary Port in Gaza? Are You Nuts?
Because the US Navy doesn’t have heavy-lift ships stationed on the East Coast, small US Army ships took until April 26 to reach Gaza. The construction of the pier facility took another twenty days.
Biden has promised “no boots on the ground,” but the pier has been subjected to mortar fire on at least one occasion.
BACKGROUND: Biden’s ‘Humanitarian Aid’ Pier Off Gaza Gets ‘Humanitarian’ Mortar Barrage From Hamas
The US has stationed a counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) system near the pier.
Much to no one’s surprise, the pier operations have been suboptimal.
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Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday that more than 569 metric tons of aid had been delivered to Gaza via the pier, called a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore operation, or JLOTS, but that it did not appear that any of it had actually been delivered to the starving residents of Gaza.
RELATED: Eli Gold: Is the Pentagon’s Gaza Pier Just a New Way to Deliver Supplies to Hamas?