Administration officials described what they called an “emergency mission,” which will be announced in Biden's State of the Union address Thursday evening, as part of the president's directive to “flood the region” with desperately needed aid arriving by air, land and sea.
The port plan follows the start of air drops of US military aid into Gaza last week, which were carried out for the third time on Thursday. One of the three senior US administration officials, who briefed reporters on the plan on condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said the new naval facility would allow “hundreds” of aid trucks to be delivered daily to Gaza. The aid will be routed through Cyprus, where the goods will undergo inspection by Israel before being loaded onto what officials said will be “large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.”
Relations between Washington and Jerusalem have become increasingly tense, as the Israeli blockade on Gaza has severely limited the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into the Strip. Millions of civilians inside the war zone are on the brink of famine amid a worsening public health catastrophe, according to humanitarian organizations.
Both at home and abroad, Biden's attempts to balance steadfast US diplomatic and military support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas militants with the increasingly dire situation in Gaza has become increasingly unacceptable.
“We are not waiting for the Israelis” to facilitate more aid, one senior official said. “This is a moment for American leadership and we are working to build a coalition of countries to meet this urgent need.” After the initial delivery to the United States by sea, the hope is that other countries will join a mission that will eventually include commercial operations, the official said.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not issue any initial statement regarding the American announcement. An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official response, said that Israel “welcomes and fully supports” the port plans that were discussed “and will be implemented in full coordination between the two parties.”
Biden pledged that no US military forces would participate in the war, and officials said there would be no US troops on the ground during the construction of the port facility.
One of the officials said: “The concept that has been planned includes the presence of US military personnel on military ships off the coast of Gaza, but it does not require US military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or bridge facility or to unload aid.”
“This important capability will take several weeks to plan and implement,” the official said, adding that the required US forces “are either already in the region or will begin moving there soon.”
The Pentagon declined to provide further details about how, when and where — or with which military units — the facility will be built, saying more details about the mission will be released on Friday.
The officials said that the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations would distribute aid inside Gaza and Israel would make security arrangements. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said Thursday that they welcome “any way to deliver more aid to Gaza,” but stressed that truck convoys are more effective. “We have said from the beginning that we need more entry points and we need a greater volume of aid to arrive by land,” he said.
Israel allowed land transportation only from southern Gaza, through the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom in the southeastern corner of the Strip. Most of this aid goes to the city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Gazans have taken refuge to escape the Israeli bombing. Israel has warned of an imminent attack in Rafah, where it says Hamas units and its leadership are hiding.
Gaza has long relied on international aid. Before the October 7 Hamas attack — in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages were taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities — an average of about 500 trucks of humanitarian and commercial goods entered the Strip daily. Both Israel and Egypt tightened access after the attack and subsequent Israeli military offensive, in which Gaza health authorities say more than 30,000 people were killed. The average daily number of trucks dropped to 170 trucks in January and 98 trucks in February, with as few as 10 on some days.
Only a small number of convoys have reached the north, which witnessed massive destruction due to Israeli air and ground attacks last year. Most residents of the north have been evacuated to the south, but at least 300,000 people are believed to be sheltering amid the rubble in and around Gaza City. Israeli forces prevented or delayed the arrival of aid convoys, while criminal gangs kidnapped starving civilians and besieged trucks that managed to approach the area in the absence of local police escort, who abandoned this mission after coming under Israeli attack.
More than 100 people were killed last week, either by Israeli fire or a stampede, when a crowd of people descended on a rare aid convoy in Gaza City. The World Food Program said a second attempt to reach the north on Wednesday was “largely unsuccessful” when Israeli forces delayed and then rerouted 14 trucks looted by civilians before they reached their destination.
The growing need to deliver more food, medicine and supplies to Gaza has increased pressure on both Israel and Hamas to cease hostilities before the start of Ramadan at the beginning of next week.
The Gaza port announcement came at a time when a senior US administration official refused to predict whether the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages would succeed. The terms of the interim agreement, which the Biden administration says Israel has agreed to, include a six-week ceasefire and the release of women, children, the sick and the elderly held by Hamas, including some Israeli soldiers. Some of the hostages are believed to have died, and the interim agreement includes the return of their bodies. During the cessation of fighting late last year, Hamas exchanged more than 100 hostages for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
The official said that the offer on the table before Hamas also includes repositioning Israeli forces in Gaza away from urban areas, allowing residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes, and significantly increasing the flow of humanitarian aid. “All these matters have been negotiated,” the official said. The United States and Israel say the ball is now in Hamas' court.
A Hamas official told the Washington Post that the movement rejected Israel's offer of a six-week truce while it maintains forces in Gaza and receives returning hostages. “We want a permanent ceasefire, and we want the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing negotiations. He said that the ceasefire, which lasts only during the month of Ramadan, and the release of the hostages will leave Gaza residents without a guarantee of protection after its end.
US officials said they expected a three-phase agreement, with an additional ceasefire – and ultimately an end to the war – to be negotiated during the first phase. Israel said it intends to return to its mission of eliminating Hamas in Rafah as soon as its hostages are recovered.
Israel withdrew its negotiating team from the talks that took place in Cairo earlier this week. A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Thursday to conduct what it said were consultations with the movement’s political leadership in Qatar.
Daadoush reported from Beirut. Missy Ryan and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
