Almost a week after Pentagon officials began suggesting that the temporary pier in Gaza may not return, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command has confirmed that the pier’s mission is over.
“Now that that maritime surge mission was successful, it’s now transitioning from a temporary pier in Gaza to a port in Ashdod, Israel,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
Cooper was adamant that, in the face of direct questioning by reporters about the political controversy and weather interruptions that had impacted the pier and led President Joe Biden to publicly say that he was disappointed, the pier had accomplished its mission in a “historically unprecedented operation” that transported “the highest volume of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. military has ever delivered into the Middle East.”
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According to Cooper, the shift from using the Army‘s Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) to the port Ashdod in Israel, just north of Gaza, means that even though the pier itself will be going away, the ships and troops that are supporting the mission will stay in the area for some time.
“We expect to use the same vessels that have been transporting aid from Cyprus to the pier,” Cooper said, adding that “now the same vessels will be used to transport aid from Cyprus to Ashdod.”
It’s not clear whether the pier, which…
