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Gaza pier reanchored, working again, aid being transferred, says U.S.

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 join Israel Defense Forces emplace the Trident Pier on May 16 on the Gaza coast. (U.S. Central Command/Getty Images North America/TNS)
German Press Agency

German Press Agency

WASHINGTON – A temporary pier set up by the U.S. military off the coast of Gaza is back in operation after several days of repairs, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.

“As has been the case in the past, Israeli Defense Force engineers provided all the necessary support to ensure the safe and placement of the pier on the beach,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said.

“Overnight, the transfer of humanitarian assistance from Cyprus to Gaza resumed with more than 656 metric tons or 1.4 million pounds, being delivered to the marshaling yard in Gaza,” he added.

The temporary harbor serves as a hub for the delivery of desperately needed aid supplies as Gaza itself has no harbor deep enough for larger cargo vessels.

Cargo ships bring aid supplies from Cyprus to a floating platform a few kilometers off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The goods are then loaded onto smaller ships that can dock at the temporary pier, where their cargoes are transferred to lorries to be distributed across the territory.

But the pier was temporarily towed away last week due to rough seas.

Ryder did not provide any information on the distribution of the goods, referring to the aid organizations working on the ground.

The World Food Programme recently halted the distribution of aid following a massive Israeli military operation near the pier almost a fortnight ago.

Israel continues to seek to eliminate Palestinian Islamist Hamas in Gaza, in the war that began when fighters from Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza killed some 1,200 people on Oct. 7. They also injured countless others and took more than 200 hostages back to Gaza. Israel responded by sealing off the Palestinian territory and launching a massive aerial campaign to eliminate Hamas. At the end of October, Israeli ground troops were sent in and much of the coastal strip has since been rendered uninhabitable.

More than 37,300 people have been killed and more than 85,000 injured in the course of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza said.

A lack of basic supplies has led to a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Thursday, in the West Bank, a 15-year-old Palestinian was killed in clashes during an Israeli military operation, the Ministry of Health in Ramallah said.

He was hit by two bullets and later died of his injuries in hospital, after confrontations involving youths in the town of Kalkilia during an army raid, according to Palestinian media reports.

Israel’s military stated on inquiry that the reports on the incident were being investigated.

The situation in the West Bank has worsened significantly since the start of the war in Gaza.

Since then, at least 528 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank, according to the Ministry of Health.

Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has also increased again since the war began.