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How Much Has US-built Gaza Aid Pier Helped Get Aid into Gaza?

A truck carries humanitarian aid across Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Gaza coast, May 19, 2024. US Army Central/Handout via REUTERS
A truck carries humanitarian aid across Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Gaza coast, May 19, 2024. US Army Central/Handout via REUTERS
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How Much Has US-built Gaza Aid Pier Helped Get Aid into Gaza?

A truck carries humanitarian aid across Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Gaza coast, May 19, 2024. US Army Central/Handout via REUTERS
A truck carries humanitarian aid across Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Gaza coast, May 19, 2024. US Army Central/Handout via REUTERS

A US-built pier designed to increase flows of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip has been beset by challenges and is now expected to be permanently dismantled.
US officials have said they will attempt to reinstall the pier to clear a backlog of Gaza-bound aid in Cyprus, and that it is then likely to be permanently dismantled.
Aid workers and others have long questioned the project, saying delivering aid by land is the only effective way to get supplies at scale into Gaza, where Israeli forces are fighting a war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Here are some details on the pier.
WHY WAS THE PIER BUILT?
US President Joe Biden announced a plan to put the pier in place in March, following warnings that famine could spread across Gaza and increasing difficulties sending aid through land crossings, most of which were kept shut by Israel for months.
Biden made the announcement as he sought to cool anger among many in his Democratic Party over support for Israel during its offensive in Gaza, given the heavy toll on civilians.
During the war - which began after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year, triggering Israel's military retaliation - humanitarian conditions have deteriorated rapidly for Gaza's 2.3 million residents. Almost all its residents have been displaced within the coastal enclave, many of them multiple times.
HOW IS THE PIER OPERATED?
The about 1,200-foot-long (370-meter-long) floating pier is located offshore a little north of the Wadi Gaza coastal wetland. Construction of the pier, which was partially pre-assembled in the Israeli port of Ashdod, started in April. Aid first began arriving on May 17.
Food and other aid supplies have been transported to the pier from Cyprus, which spearheaded efforts to open a sea route for humanitarian assistance.
Supplies have been X-rayed in Cyprus in the presence of Israeli officials, who have closely monitored aid entering Gaza, saying it could benefit Hamas.
Aid has then been transported to the pier by ship before being loaded onto trucks to be driven onto the coast.
The operation is complex, involving about 1,000 US military personnel, some stationed on the pier. The Pentagon estimated that the first 90 days of operation would cost about $230 million.
WHAT PROBLEMS HAS THE PIER FACED?
The pier has been temporarily removed several times because of rough seas. On one occasion it was towed to the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod for repairs after a section broke off.
Shipments have also been held up by delays in distributing supplies into Gaza, a process that is fraught with risk and requires Israeli approvals.
When considering whether to bring back the pier after bad weather in late June, US officials said there would be little point in doing so immediately because the marshaling area next to the pier was nearly full.
As has been the case with aid delivered on other routes, supplies coming off the pier have sometimes been seized by desperate Gazans or subject to more organized looting.
The UN World Food Program, tasked with overseeing distribution of aid from the pier, paused operations in June because of security concerns.
Some aid workers expressed concern that a pier operated by the US military could put humanitarian staff and operations at risk because locals might question their neutrality or see them as undercover agents.
In June, the Pentagon sought to dispel what it said were false social media reports that Israel used a floating US pier off Gaza in a hostage rescue mission.
HOW MUCH AID HAS BEEN DELIVERED
As of June 25, almost 7,000 metric tons of assistance had arrived in Gaza via Cyprus, US aid officials said, roughly the equivalent of 350 aid trucks.
Aid officials say about 600 trucks of humanitarian and commercial supplies are needed in Gaza daily to meet the needs of the population.
Before Israel expanded its military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah in early May, most aid had been arriving in Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, or through the nearby Israeli-controlled crossing of Kerem Shalom. In April, an average of 189 trucks entered daily through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, according to UN data.
WHAT'S THE PIER'S FUTURE?
The pier was authorized to remain in operation up to July 31. A senior US official had said in June that it could be extended by at least another month.
Pentagon officials have cautioned that the sea could become too rough for the pier after the summer.

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This Ramadan, Relief and Hope Bump against Uncertainty in the New Syria

Residents walk in the market on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025.(AP)
Residents walk in the market on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025.(AP)
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This Ramadan, Relief and Hope Bump against Uncertainty in the New Syria

Residents walk in the market on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025.(AP)
Residents walk in the market on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025.(AP)

Sahar Diab had visited Damascus’ famed Umayyad Mosque previously. But as the Syrian lawyer went there to pray during her country’s first Ramadan after the end of the Assad family’s iron-fisted rule, she felt something new, something priceless: A sense of ease.

“The rituals have become much more beautiful,” she said. “Before, we were restricted in what we could say. ... Now, there’s freedom.”

As Diab spoke recently, however, details were trickling in from outside Damascus about deadly clashes. The bloodshed took on sectarian overtones and devolved into the worst violence since former President Bashar Assad was overthrown in December by armed insurgents led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

This Ramadan — the Muslim holy month of daily fasting and heightened worship — such are the realities of a Syria undergoing complex transition. Relief, hope and joy at new openings — after 53 years of the Assad dynasty’s reign, prolonged civil war and crushing economic woes — intermingle with uncertainty, fear by some, and a particularly bloody and worrisome wave of violence.

Some are feeling empowered, others vulnerable.

“We’re not afraid of anything,” Diab said. She wants her country to be rebuilt and to get rid of Assad-era “corruption and bribery.”

At the Umayyad Mosque, the rituals were age-old: A woman fingering a prayer bead and kissing a copy of the Quran; the faithful standing shoulder-to-shoulder and prostrating in prayer; the Umayyad’s iconic and unusual group call to prayer, recited by several people.

Muslim worshippers pray during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, Friday March 7, 2025. (AP)

The sermon, by contrast, was fiery in delivery and new in message.

The speaker, often interrupted by loud chants of “God is great,” railed against Assad and hailed the uprising against him.

“Our revolution is not a sectarian revolution even though we’d been slaughtered by the sword of sectarianism,” he said.

This Ramadan, Syrians marked the 14th anniversary of the start of their country’s civil war. The conflict began as a peaceful revolt against the regime, before Assad crushed the protests and a civil war erupted.

It became increasingly fought along sectarian lines, drawing in foreign powers and fighters. Assad, who had ruled over a majority Sunni population, belongs to the minority Alawite sect and had drawn from Alawite ranks for military and security positions, fueling resentment. That, Alawites say now, shouldn’t mean collective blame for his actions.

Many Syrians speak of omnipresent fear under Assad, often citing the Arabic saying, “the walls have ears,” reflecting that speaking up even privately didn’t feel safe. They talk of hardships, injustices and brutality. Now, for example, many celebrate freedom from dreaded Assad-era checkpoints.

“They would harass us,” said Ahmed Saad Aldeen, who came to the Umayyad Mosque from the city of Homs. “You go out ... and you don’t know whether you’ll return home or not.”

He said more than a dozen cousins are missing; a search for them in prisons proved futile.

Mohammed Qudmani said even going to the mosque caused anxiety for some before, for fear of getting on security forces’ radar screen or being labeled a “terrorist.”

Now, Damascus streets are bedecked with the new three-starred flag, not long ago a symbol of Assad's opponents. It flutters from poles and is plastered to walls, sometimes with the words “God is great” handwritten on it.

One billboard declares this the “Ramadan of victory.” On a government building, the faces of former presidents Bashar and Hafez al-Assad are partly cut off from a painting; in their place, “Freedom” is scribbled in Arabic.

Haidar Haidar, who owns a sweets shop, said he was touched that new security force members gave him water and dates while he was out when a call to prayer signaled that those fasting can eat and drink.

“We never saw such things here,” he said, adding that he used to recite Quranic verses for protection before passing through Assad’s checkpoints.

He said his business was doing well this Ramadan and ingredients have become more available.

A boy buys sweets on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday March 1, 2025.(AP)

Still, challenges — economic, geopolitical and otherwise — abound.

Many dream of a new Syria, but exactly how that would look remains uncertain.

“The situation is foggy,” said Damascus resident Wassim Bassimah. “Of course, there’s great joy that we’ve gotten rid of the cancer we had, but there’s also a lot of wariness.”

Syrians, he added, must be mindful to protect their country from sliding back into civil war and should maintain a dialogue that is inclusive of all.

“The external enemies are still there,” he said. “So are the enemies from within.”

The war’s scars are inescapable.

Just outside of Damascus, death and destruction are seared into some landscapes littered with pockmarked and ruined structures. Many Syrians grieve the missing and killed; many families have been divided by the exodus of millions as refugees.

Ramadan typically sees festive gatherings with loved ones to break the daily fast. Some Syrians huddle around food and juices at restaurants or throng to Ramadan tents to break their fast and smoke waterpipes as they listen to songs.

But this month’s violence in Syria’s coastal region has stoked fears among some.

The bloodshed began after reports of attacks by Assad loyalists on government security forces. Human rights and monitoring groups reported revenge killings in the counteroffensive, which they said saw the involvement of multiple groups. According to them, hundreds of civilians, or more, were killed; figures couldn't be independently confirmed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the killed civilians were Alawites in addition to a number of armed Alawites and security forces. Syrian authorities have formed a committee tasked with investigating the violence.

Even before the bloodshed, while many celebrated the new government, others questioned what the ascent of the former opposition forces would mean for freedoms, including of minorities and of those in the majority who are secular-minded or adhere to less conservative interpretations of Islam. The new authorities have made assurances about pluralism.

Sheikh Adham al-Khatib, a representative of Twelver Shiites in Syria, said many from the Shiite minority felt scared after Assad’s ouster and some fled the country. Some later returned, encouraged by a relative calm and the new authorities’ reassurances, he said, but the recent violence and some “individual transgressions" have rekindled fears.