![The MV Benavidez departs its pier in Newport News, Virginia, March 21, carrying heavy equipment and material needed to construct a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza. [US Navy Military Sealift Command]](/ssc/images/2024/05/03/46551-benavidez-600_384.webp)
In late March, the Bob Hope-class MV Roy P. Benavidez (T-AKR 306) departed her port in Newport News, Virginia, carrying equipment to build a floating pier in the Mediterranean that will support the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
A few weeks later, the ship has landed off the coast of Gaza and construction has begun on the 550-meter long, two-lane pier.
The MV Benavidez is one of several US Army vessels and Military Sealift Command ships in the Mediterranean sea working to build the platform, where ships can unload pallets of aid destined for civilians in Gaza.
The MV Benavidez is a medium-speed roll-on, roll-off cargo ship formerly in service with the US Navy as a sealift ship. Since 2022, she has been a part of the US Department of Transportation's US Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Fleet and fulfills a critical role in USTRANSCOM's military sealift operations.
The steel hulled-ship measures at approximately 289 meters in length, about 90% of the length of a US Navy Supercarrier, and can carry up to 22,000 tons or 380,000 square feet of containerized cargo.
The largest elements of her cargo include several 22,680-kilogram pieces of floating causeway which the Benavidez will deliver to the US Army's 7th Transportation Brigade who will construct the temporary pier.
Humanitarian aid mission
The floating modular pier system, known as Trident Pier, will allow the smooth transit of humanitarian aid onto the shore of Gaza without putting US boots on the ground.
This style of temporary pier is known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), a critical joint Army-Navy capability that allows ship-to-shore transportation of cargo in the absence of a usable pier.
JLOTs empower US forces to deploy humanitarian assistance, increase throughput and ease the burden on other methods of aid-transport which cannot deliver high volumes of assistance.
Once constructed, the pier will enable the flow of critical aid, including an estimated up to two million meals a day, to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict.
The pier is expected to be fully operational in early May.
In recent months, US forces have conducted humanitarian assistance airdrops alongside the Royal Jordanian Air Force, delivering more than 1,100 tons of food to civilians. The construction of the pier will enhance these efforts.
JLOTS missions have previously seen success, including the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Haiti in the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the island in 2010.
Damn America and Israel!
ReplyUS base
ReplyWe doubt Americans' sincerity because they're Zionists.
ReplyAmerica doesn't want any good.
ReplyGood luck to those who helped people survive.
ReplyBecause America wants to have Israel run the place and distribute assistance. How can this happen when it’s Israel that is bombing all aid trucks that enter anywhere in Gaza. With this, America is allowing Israel to have permanent presence in Gaza. This is what Israel wants. This is a re-occupation of Gaza.
ReplyProviding aid doesn’t need the construction of a pier. It’s very simple: if the US administration had the intention to deliver aid to Gaza, either through Rafah crossing or via Jordan, exactly as the US administration delivers everything to Israel, it could deliver the aid to Gaza if it wanted that. However, it doesn’t want to deliver aid or anything to Gaza. This is a waste of time. The US administration is a partner with Israel in starving and killing the Palestinian people. The aid it has airdropped has gone to Lebanon. As to Palestinians, when they went to get the aid, the occupation forces killed them. The US administration is a partner with the Zionist entity in everything: it’s providing the Zionist entity with weapons, burning bombs and personnel to kill the Palestinian people. The entire world knows that. America is a terrorist state and a sponsor of terrorism. It doesn’t do anything except for the protection of its interests. We pray to Allah to rid us of the terrorist, colonial, terror-sponsor America, and to rid us of the criminal Zionist entity! We pray to Allah to make America and Europe taste, at the hands of Jews, what they did in Palestine! Allah willing!
ReplyBy Allah, I have suspicions about this. America doesn’t do anything without a catastrophe behind it!
ReplyThis is true, nothing good can come from America because it's the cause of all catastrophes everywhere. This is the reality.
ReplyWho helped the Zionists kill and destroy the Palestinian people? Who opposed the UN resolutions to stop Israel’s massacres against civilians in Palestine? In which country do the leaders always say that they’ll protect Israel and provide assistance to it? Everybody knows that Israel exists to protect the rights of America and the West in the Middle East. How can we believe that America will have a humanitarian role in Gaza? Wake up and understand what’s happening in front of you!
ReplyThis is not for aid, but for a new base and American occupation in a new form. This is another nakba (setback).
ReplyHow merciful America is on the Palestinian people! It’s building a floating port costing $320 million to get humanitarian aid in for 90 days. Meanwhile, Egypt’s Rafah border crossing has thousands of trucks waiting a word from Biden to al-Sisi to open it. Or is it a trick to bring in some humanitarian assistance to force the people of Gaza to leave on boats through that port? This is to realise two goals: the first is to re-occupy Gaza and the second is to seize Gaza gas reserves.
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