US ships operate on the beach at the Gaza Humanitarian Wharf on the Israeli coast - ExBulletin
Source: ExBulletin
ASHDOD, Israel -- Rescue operations were underway in Israel Saturday as U.S. and Israeli soldiers worked to free two stranded U.S. Army ships that ran aground while working on the construction of a floating pier outside the Gaza Strip.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Saturday morning that "rough waves" had caused four US military ships to break free from their moorings. Two of the ships were anchored near the Gaza Strip dock, while two other ships ran aground on Israeli shores.
"The IDF is supporting recovery efforts near the pier," officials said in a statement. "No American personnel will enter Gaza. No injuries have been reported and the pier remains fully functional. We will release additional details as they become available.
The vessels appeared to be Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) Mark 8s, part of the watercraft unit that helped build and guide the pier.
A section of the pier was also beached, which could be used to allow people to monitor construction and movements.
The USAV Matamoros, a ship the size of a football field, moved off Ashdod Beach, appearing to assist in rescue operations. At one point, Israeli forces attempted to use a small drone to deliver a rope to the Matamoros, but had to abandon their efforts when the rope got snagged in the waves.
The ship had left Fort Eustis, Virginia, in March, as part of the fleet sent to build the floating pier.
The crash landing of U.S. military ships on Israeli beaches underscored the challenge posed to the Biden administration's efforts to find alternative routes for delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged ship.
The U.S. ships landed in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, about 20 miles from Gaza's northern border.
The force of the seas on Saturday, with swells of 1.6 meters and winds gusting between 10 and 20 knots, offered a concrete demonstration of how weather conditions can hamper what was already an extremely difficult route for the delivery of aid.
The ships are part of the Biden administration's $320 million pier project aimed at increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Aid began trickling slowly from the dock last week, an extraordinary effort to deliver food to Palestinians facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis amid nearly eight months of war following Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.
U.S. officials acknowledged that the pier's first days of operation fell short of the scale of supplies they hoped to deliver.
Aid workers and aid groups cited enormous challenges in delivering aid, with land crossings closed due to Israeli military operations, a lack of resources to deliver aid and manage its distribution, as well as death threats against humanitarian workers operating in a theater of conflict.
The news also comes after three U.S. soldiers assigned to the dock mission were injured earlier this week, according to the Pentagon, including one whose injuries were serious enough to require medical evacuation to Israel.
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