Due to strong sea states on Saturday, four U.S. Army vessels that are part of the marine humanitarian aid operation in Gaza broke free from their moorings, according to U.S. Central Command.
The third and fourth warships are beached on the Israeli shore close to Ashkelon, a coastal city about eight miles north of the Gaza Strip, while the other two are anchored on the beach near the floating pier off the coast of Gaza.
According to CENTCOM, there have been no reported casualties and the American-built pier is still operational. Additionally, no American forces will be entering Gaza.
According to CENTCOM, recovery operations are under progress with the help and backing of the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Navy.
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Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, is a little-known military capability that is used by the United States in its endeavor to provide much-needed humanitarian supplies to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Typically, soldiers and sailors are involved.
After U.S. soldiers and sailors stabbed the floating pier into a Gaza beach earlier this month, the Gaza pier mission got off to a rough start. The Associated Press reported that the flow of aid was briefly interrupted when delivery trucks were overran, which resulted in the death of at least one person.
Three American military men who were part of the Gaza Pier mission reportedly had noncombat-related injuries last week, according to U.S. sources. Two injuries were characterized by officials as “minor” and “routine,” but they would not provide any details about the nature of the injury that required one service member to be medically evacuated to a hospital in Israel.
Since the floating pier opened for business, U.S. Marines have helped move 1.2 million pounds of assistance into Gaza, according to a May 23 statement from the U.S. Department of Defense.
