The Pentagon said Friday that it will remove the pier it is using to deliver aid into Gaza for the third time since it was installed due to weather and high seas, amid mounting criticism of the operation on Capitol Hill.
“Temporarily relocating the pier will prevent potential structural damage that could be caused by the heightened sea state,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a briefing Friday to reporters.
The move comes as critics in Congress continue to call for an end to the pier’s mission and aid has been slow to move off the beach and into the hands of starving Palestinians caught in the middle of Israel‘s brutal offensive against Hamas. However, despite these challenges, the pier has still become a critical lifeline for aid into Gaza.
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Republican lawmakers have called the troubled pier — a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, operation by the Army — a “logistical nightmare,” failure and waste of taxpayer money.
“Three and a half months since the president’s announcement of a maritime corridor for Gaza and at least $230 million wasted, the operation has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
The House moved two…
