The Navy will deploy a host of logistics vessels and around 260 sailors to help operate the pier system being spearheaded by the Army to provide millions of meals and supplies to the Gaza Strip. Many Gaza residents are starving as Israel lays siege to the region after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli settlements.
A Navy official who spoke to reporters Wednesday on the condition of anonymity said that the sea service’s Naval Beach Group 1 will deploy the USNS 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez and the USNS 2nd Lt. John Bobo with enough watercraft and equipment to operate a huge floating dock three miles off the coast of Gaza that will serve as the first stop for goods bound for the beleaguered territory.
The dock, which the official said will measure 240 by 72 feet, will be moved around by a pair of tugboats. “We will push it up alongside a cargo vessel. The cargo vessel’s cranes will then lower the containers down onto that platform,” the official said, at which point “we will then use … container forklifts to put those containers onto a tractor trailer for further transfer onto a watercraft.”
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From the floating pier, the official said that other watercraft will move those vehicles to the 800- to 2,000-foot-long Army-constructed pier that will be anchored to the beach and drive the trailers onto land.
“The people driving … will not be U.S. forces, they…
