US says Gaza jetty mission complete

The temporary jetty constructed to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid arriving into Gaza from Cyprus will never be used again, after United States Central Command spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said on Wednesday night the “mission … is complete”.

According to Reuters, Ryder told a news briefing that “the mission involving the jetty is complete, so there is no more need to use the jetty.”

Ryder’s announcement comes two days after Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh had said US forces were “still assessing when and if [the jetty] can be re-anchored” for one final time to facilitate the transfer of aid which was waiting in Cyprus and off Gaza’s coast to be brought ashore.

However, given the short amount of time between the two statements, it appears more likely that US forces in fact concluded it was not feasible for the jetty to be re-anchored at all.

In such a scenario, aid would likely therefore be taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and then transferred into Gaza over land through the Erez crossing.

In any case, Singh had given assurances that “no matter what, the aid that is in Cyprus or on our ships right now will get to the people of Gaza in some way.”

Ryder’s statement brings to an end a two-month long saga which has seen the jetty only operable for a total of 12 days, having first been installed on May 17.

It had been frequently rendered unusable by weather conditions, with British newspaper The Guardian having reported earlier in the year that it is only usable when waves are smaller than 1.25 metres in height.

It had broken apart in May during high winds, with four US army vessels which were holding it in place being washed up on a beach near Ashkelon, an Israeli town located between the Ashdod and Gaza.

It was taken to Ashdod for repairs before being reattached in early June, but was then removed on two further occasions as officials feared that conditions would lead to it breaking apart again.

In addition to its structural difficulties, the jetty was also impacted by problems regarding delivery after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in June suspended its operations related to the jetty following an Israeli military operation in the area which reportedly killed over 200 Palestinians.

WFP executive director Cindy McCain had said at the time that two of the WFP’s warehouses nearby had been “rocketed” by Israeli forces, and that she was “concerned about the safety of our people”.

Earlier this month, WFP spokeswoman Abeer Etefa was clear that the WFP’s stance had not changed, explaining to the Cyprus Mail that the organisation had engaged in an “exceptional one-off operation” to remove the aid which remained in the secure area into Gaza proper.

“The supplies were cleared from the beach and there is nothing new coming in. It was all cleared out, and has now gone for distribution,” she said.

She added that the WFP’s position on the jetty was that “if more supplies come in [via the jetty], we will not pick them up.”

Despite the problems the jetty faced, Singh had been keen on Tuesday to accentuate its positives, saying a total of 9,0000 tonnes of aid had been moved into Gaza using it.

“So, that is still a success,” she said.

In addition, while the jetty’s story may be at an end, the Cypriot government has been insistent that the Amalthea plan, the name given for the country’s maritime humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza, will not end with it.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had last week insisted the jetty’s permanent removal “does not affect the continuation of the Amalthea initiative at all”.

He added that when the Amalthea plan was devised, “we did not have the US administration’s intention to build a jetty in mind.”

At the same time, foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis had told the Cyprus Mail last week that aid sent towards Gaza from Cyprus would dock at Ashdod once the jetty was taken out of service.

He added that Ashdod has been used alongside the jetty throughout the jetty’s two-month lifespan, having previously been used as a port of reception for aid before the jetty had been constructed.

With this in mind, he said the Cypriot government will now be working together with the Israeli government and other allies to ensure more aid arrives in Gaza via Ashdod.

In addition to Ashdod, Gotsis said the government and other partners in the region are looking for “other options” for how aid can be transported into Gaza, ideally by direct means.

“The jetty was a direct means of getting aid into Gaza, and to replace it, we would like to find another direct means. We are working with the United States, the European Union, and our other partners to find such a means,” he said.

“We are going to carry on collecting aid here and sending it on to Gaza. We remain in contact with organisations on the ground, such as the Food for Gaza initiative and the WFP, and others. The international community, including us, is committed to continuing this effort.”