UN experts warn US Gaza aid pier to facilitate Rafah invasion
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UN officials indicated the Israeli occupation forces would exploit the pier for their invasion of Rafah as an alternative to land crossings.
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An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo)
The US' scheme to construct a large pier off the Gaza coast for humanitarian aid delivery has been criticized as a "smokescreen" to facilitate the potential Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah, The Independent reported Wednesday citing UN officials.
Scheduled to be operational by early May, the pier reportedly aims to boost aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip by bypassing the Israeli-occupied land routes.
However, UN officials caution that the dock will not be positioned near northern Gaza, where the famine risk is most acute, but rather at a location monitored by an Israeli occupation military checkpoint, according to The Independent.
The UN officials indicated that the Israeli occupation forces would then exploit the pier for their invasion of Rafah as an alternative to land crossings that would be shut down during the operation.
"One of the key arguments for having a dock was to put it further north so that suppliers could come in more directly to the north," a UN official was quoted as saying.
The official further remarked that the current proposal seems more like a cover for a potential Israeli invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians are sheltering.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in early April that the US still opposes "Israel's" plans to launch a ground invasion of Rafah after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled a date for the assault.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the US will begin construction "very soon" on the pier.
"All the necessary vessels are within the Mediterranean region and standing by," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.
"We are positioned to begin construction very soon," Ryder added.
The facility will consist of an offshore platform for the transfer of aid from larger to smaller vessels and a pier to bring it ashore.
Plans were first announced by US President Joe Biden in early March as the Israeli occupation forces held up much-needed aid deliveries by ground.
US officials claimed the process will not involve "boots on the ground" in Gaza, but American troops will come close to the besieged territory as they construct the pier.
Read more: Iranian strikes forced 'Israel' to postpone attack on Rafah: CNN
