At the end of April, Hamas mortared Joe Biden’s pier under construction in Gaza.   Supposedly, no one was injured, though there was much “running for cover.”  But on May 23, three US troops were injured, one critically. News reports characterize those injuries as “non-combat.” Surprisingly (snicker), no specific details have been released.

Graphic: US Central Command. Public Domain.

How much has this floating pier cost? Stripes.com, at the end of April, provided this:

The U.S. military’s initial cost of the temporary floating pier off Gaza’s coast is about $320 million, a Pentagon official said Monday. 

“We’ve been very clear this is a temporary solution to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza. This is just one other way of getting aid in,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

The figure, first reported by Reuters, has not previously been disclosed about the operation that includes about 1,000 American troops.

If that figure can be believed, one has to keep in mind that was the cost of building and maintaining the pier to that point.  A month on, God only know how much more has been spent. Also unknown is whether that figure includes bunker fuel for the ships, wear and tear on their systems, and the other, astronomic, costs of any large-scale military deployment, particularly since not a single American boot has ever touched the beaches of Gaza. We know that’s true because Joe Biden said so. For those with short memories, why is Joe building the pier?

And of course we’re spending money we don’t have to sort of supply a population that hates us and supports Hamas by an 80%+ margin.

The pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, is meant to provide a new way to deliver badly needed aid into Gaza. The World Health Organization has warned some 2.3 million Gaza inhabitants face extreme hunger that could become a full-blown famine by next month as Israel continues its war against Hamas militants, who launched a surprise assault in October from the enclave. 

President Joe Biden first announced the JLOTS operation on March 7 during his State of the Union speech. 

Oh. Right. Politics. Optics. Muslim votes in Michigan. An alternate way for Hamas to steal aid.

Was the pier necessary? Consider this from the end of March:  

Israel does not impose limits on the amount of aid entering Gaza. All aid entering Gaza undergoes Israeli security screening at either Nitzana or Kerem Shalom Crossings. From there, aid is sent to the Gaza Strip. 

To date, over 20,00 trucks on the ground have delivered over 375,000 tons of aid. That includes 240,960 tons of food, 27,760 tons of water, 19,510 tons of medical supplies, 39,080 tons of shelter equipment, 200 tanks of fuel, and 385 tanks of cooking gas.

And this from the end of April:  

"Over the last few weeks, the amount of humanitarian aid going into Gaza has significantly increased. In the coming days, the amount of aid going into Gaza will continue to scale up even more," spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

"Food, water, medical supplies, shelter equipment and other aid - more of it is going into Gaza than ever before," Hagari said.

What’s clear is Israel has consistently supplied aid to people that want to kill every Jew. Israel has also consistently allowed aid from the UN and various NGOs and governments, many of which also want to kill every Jew. It has been widely reported that most, if not all, of that aid has been stolen by Hamas. Presumably, the aid from the pier is doing better?

Graphic:  X Screenshot

Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Eleven trucks "were cleaned out by Palestinians" on the journey to the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in the central Strip, with only five truckloads making it to the destination.

Anyone care to place any bets on “all of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday”?

On May 23, USA Today delivered an assessment that must have been painful for them: 

Hijacking, mobs, and combat are creating a significant stumbling block to humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza, forcing officials to develop alternative routes for trucks arriving by the Pentagon's newly-built pier, U.S. officials said Thursday.

But other than that, Joe’s pier building effort is going great. Information on his Muslim vote-buying effort is harder to come by.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.