US Says End of Its Pier for Gaza Aid Is Coming Soon

Battling rough seas around Gaza, the US now is considering abandoning efforts to reinstall the pier that has been used to get badly needed humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians, two US officials said Thursday.

The initial plan earlier this week had been to reinstall the pier for a few days to move the final pallets of aid onto the shore and then permanently remove it, but rough seas have prevented the reinstallation.

The White House and the Defense Department both said the pier will cease operations “soon” but would not specify timing. Other US officials said the Pentagon and US Central Command were actively discussing an early end to pier operations because weather and some maintenance problems make it far less desirable to reconnect it for just a short time.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said there is no final decision yet and that if the weather calms for a bit, there is a slim chance they could reattach it for a short time.

Across Washington, officials were signaling the end of what has been a mission fraught with weather and security problems, but which also has brought more than 19.4 million pounds (8.6 million kilograms) of aid to starving residents in Gaza as the nine-month-long war between Israel and Hamas drags on.

“I do anticipate that in relatively short order we will wind down pier operations,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington on Thursday. “The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza. It’s about getting around Gaza effectively.”

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, acknowledged in a statement that US military personnel “were unable to re-anchor the pier to the shore” as planned this week, and that a date to reattach it has not been set. “The pier will soon cease operations,” he said, but provided no timeline.

Some aid still remains offshore and in Cyprus, but officials said they are looking at alternative plans to take the aid to the Israeli port at Ashdod. The port has been eyed as a likely replacement option for the movement of supplies from Cyprus to Gaza.

Despite the issues with the pier, Sullivan called the project a success.

“Look, I see any result that produces more food, more humanitarian goods, getting to the people of Gaza as a success,” Sullivan said. “It is additive. It is something additional that otherwise we would not have gotten there when it got there. And that is a good thing.”

That total amount of aid delivered, said Ryder, “represents the largest amount of aid transported by the US military over a three-month period and the largest humanitarian response in the Middle East region.”

And Samantha Power, the United States Agency for International Development administrator, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the sea route has brought in enough food to feed 450,000 of Gaza’s 2.3 million people for a month.

“When the pier was brought on line was one of the most desperate moments in this crisis,” said Power, speaking during a trip to Israel to try to bolster humanitarian delivery to Gaza. “So it’s been, I think, a bigger part of meeting food needs than people are aware.”

The continuing weather problems have forced the military to temporarily remove the pier three times since it was installed in May. And the project has also been hampered by security threats that prompted aid agencies to halt distribution of the food and other supplies into Gaza.

The aid groups have said that while any amount of food for Gaza is welcome, many have criticized the project as a costly distraction, saying the US should concentrate on pressuring Israel to allow more aid through land borders, which have long been considered the most productive option.

The UN suspended all World Food Program deliveries from the pier after a June 8 Israeli military raid that saved four Israeli hostages but killed hundreds of Palestinians, citing concerns that troops used an area near there for flying out the rescued hostages by helicopter.

Aid flowing through the pier then began piling up in the secure area on the beach, but the WFP eventually hired contractors to move it into storage areas for further distribution. The Defense Department said this week that a significant amount of the aid had been cleared out.

The Pentagon insisted all along that the pier — an Army system known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, capability — was only meant to be a temporary fix. And it said it was put in place as a stopgap while officials worked with the Israelis to open land routes.

A confidential document obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has revealed massive money smuggling operations carried out via Syrian Airlines to Moscow.
The operations are described as among the most corrupt financial transfers orchestrated by the now-defunct Syrian regime.
According to the document, the majority of the funds stem from profits made through the production and trade of Captagon, a highly lucrative illicit drug.
The head of SOHR, Rami Abdel Rahman, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the most recent transfer took place just four days before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December of last year.
Rami Abdel Rahman also affirmed that the leaked document underscores the “deep involvement of the former Syrian regime in illegal activities.”
He added that further investigations could uncover a vast network of secret financial operations used to transfer large sums of money from Syria to Russia and other countries under official cover and without oversight.
“The regime, led by the ousted Assad and his brother, spearheaded drug-related investments, particularly through the production, promotion, and export of Captagon,” Abdel Rahman told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He explained that one key route involved a small port near the Afamia chalets on Syria's coast, which previously belonged to Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of late former President Hafez al-Assad.
From there, shipments were sent via smugglers to Italian ports, where collaborating traders distributed the drugs globally.
A Syrian source based in Russia, closely monitoring the regime’s activities and investments there, said the content of the leaked document is not new but that its official confirmation adds weight to prior claims.
“Western media had previously reported on the regime’s money-smuggling operations, which led to some loyalists being added to international sanctions lists, particularly regime-linked businessmen like Mudalal Khouri,” the source, who requested anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Sanctions were also imposed on individuals accused of money laundering for the regime.
The source confirmed that the operations were conducted using Syrian Airlines flights to Moscow.
“There were dozens of such flights, each loaded with hard currency—mostly US dollars and €500 euro notes,” the source said.
The money was reportedly delivered directly from the airport to the Syrian regime's embassy in Moscow, where it was distributed to loyalist businessmen.
These funds were then invested in Russian and Belarusian banks, real estate, and commercial properties. Some of the money was also used to establish companies in both countries.
The operations were allegedly overseen by Mohammed Makhlouf, the maternal uncle of Assad.

US Says End of Its Pier for Gaza Aid Is Coming Soon