Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder speaks during a press briefing on April 23, 2024 at the Pentagon in Washington. Kevin Wolf/AP
US military vessels are in the Mediterranean region and “standing by” and prepared to begin construction on the temporary pier off the coast of Gaza when given the order to do so, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.
He also said the United States was “positioned to begin construction very soon, in the near future.”
Officials are working through a checklist of processes and procedures, including security on the ground, coordination with partners supporting this effort and drawing up a timeline for implementation, Ryder said.
Ryder has said the expectation is for the temporary pier to be operational by the end of April or early May, and said Tuesday the military is on track to meet that timeline.
The World Food Programme will support the distribution of aid from the pier following weeks of diplomatic wrangling, the organization said Saturday.
The temporary pier, which will be several miles off Gaza’s coast, will receive military and civilian vessels, Ryder said. The aid brought by those vessels will then be transported by US military vessels to the causeway, where non-military trucks — driven by non-profit organization personnel — will take the aid and then distribute it into Gaza.
Palestinians inspect the site of a strike in Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on October 31. Abdul Qader Sabbah/AP
Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which was hit on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a Hamas leader, was always known to journalists covering Gaza for the sheer number of children there.
Over several visits there over the years I found them to be curious and excited when strangers showed up. Crowding around our CNN teams, asking questions, trying their English and jumping in front of the camera. Often my TV producer, driver and fixer would have to keep the children busy and distracted as we attempted to report or record a shot on camera.
Like Gaza’s other refugee camps, these crowded built-up areas have houses, shops, and apartment buildings jammed up against one another, the roads between them in many areas barely wide enough for a car to pass. The open-air markets were always busy.
Even in the best of times though, life was tough in Jabalya. Schools were so crowded classes were held in two shifts a day. The tap water wasn’t fit for human consumption. Unemployment was high and most families were dependent on food aid provided by the United Nations. Yet one rarely got the feeling that people had given up hope.
Once when I was in Jabalya, after another round of fighting between Hamas and Israel in the spring of 2021, we stopped at a shawarma shop the day after the fighting ended. The shop had just opened and was doing a bustling business. Its owner, Amjad, greeted us heartily.
Two years later, in 2023, I was back after another reporting trip, and the shop had expanded. Amjad greeted us like long lost friends and snapped orders to the waiters to get our food.
Above our table was a television running on a loop an advertisement for a local school promising a top-quality education to ensure a shining future for the children of Gaza.
Yes, Jabalya was crowded and noisy and dusty — one of the poorer areas in Gaza — but it was a place where, despite the problems of Gaza, you always came away feeling that someday, somehow, the people there would be able to live a better life.
I can’t go back right now with Israel and Egypt blocking entry into Gaza, but I fear that optimism against all odds may now have been shattered.
The US remains a part of the ongoing talks that include Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Hamas to get a large group of hostages out of Gaza, and officials are now contending with Israel pressing forward with ground operations into the strip.
Officials with US President Joe Biden’s administration have been calling on Israel to consider so-called “humanitarian pauses” that can allow for civilians in Gaza, including hostages, to exit and for aid to get in.
Offering a glimpse into how unpredictable and fluid the situation remains, a senior US official told CNN on Monday they believed the prospects of getting hostages out could be described as “50/50.”
“The parameters are all there,” this official said about a potential deal. But efforts to negotiate with Hamas — mediated significantly by the Qataris — has been slow-going, in no small part because it simply takes a long time for messages to be transmitted from Doha to Hamas.
Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and adviser to the Qatari prime minister, told CNN on Saturday that Israel’s escalation on the ground is making the situation “considerably more difficult.”
Israel has said the intensifying ground offensive puts additional pressure on Hamas, and therefore may ultimately be helpful in the ongoing efforts to free hostages.
A US official said there could in fact be some benefit to this approach.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said on Sunday that Hamas has “not been forthcoming about allowing these hostages to go,” but the administration believes there is still a “pathway” for securing their release.
“Even though we’ve started to see Israel moving on the ground, that has not changed our basic view that this has to remain a paramount priority that we have to keep working at,” Sullivan said.
One source familiar with the discussions said the talks have centered on freeing hostages in exchange for prisoners being held by Israel.
Al-Ansari, the Qatari spokesperson, also said there have been active discussions about a “prisoner exchange” for the hostages.
The source added the negotiations also include getting Hamas to open the Rafah gates for dual nationals to leave Gaza.
“We are optimistic that the talks are headed more towards all civilian hostages,” al-Ansari said. “But obviously, it is a fluid situation … And we still don’t know will happen.”
As the talks continue, there remains real skepticism about how serious Hamas is about the negotiations, the senior US official said. “It’s Hamas after all.”
