Gazan terrorists on Wednesday launched mortar shells at a site off the coast of Gaza where the United States is planning to construct a floating pier to deliver humanitarian aid, according to a report from Israeli outlet i24NEWS.
The mortar attack damaged American engineering equipment and left one person injured, i24NEWS reported on Thursday. The United States could start building the humanitarian pier as early as this weekend, with the Israel Defense Forces reportedly in charge of providing security during the construction.
President Joe Biden first announced the pier’s construction during his State of the Union address on March 7. U.S. military personnel will assemble the floating pier, an 1,800-foot-long causeway attached to the coast of northern Gaza, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the day after Biden’s speech.
"As the president has said, not enough aid is getting in [to Gaza]," Ryder said, noting the pier is expected to help deliver "up to 2,000,000 meals in a day."
"At no time will we require U.S. forces to actually go on the ground," Ryder added. "Our role will be essentially to provide the service of getting [the aid] to the causeway, at which point it will then be distributed."
Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the humanitarian pier would endanger U.S. troops deployed to manage it, with over a dozen members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last month warning Biden that the plan "appears to ignore force protection issues entirely, against an enemy that tries to kill Americans every day."