President Joe Biden ordered the construction of a temporary pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this year even as some staffers for the U.S. Agency for International Development expressed concerns that the effort would be difficult to pull off and undercut the effort to persuade Israel to open “more efficient” land crossings to get food into the territory, according to a USAID inspector general report published Tuesday.

Biden announced plans to use the temporary pier in his State of the Union address in March to hasten the delivery of aid to the Palestinian territory.

But the $320 million military-run project known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system, or JLOTS, would only operate for about 20 days. Aid groups pulled out of the project by July, ending a mission plagued by repeated weather and security problems.

“Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns that the focus on using JLOTS would detract from the Agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza,” according to the inspector general report. “However, once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use JLOTS as effectively as possible.”

High waves and bad weather repeatedly damaged the pier, and the U.N. World Food Program ended cooperation with the project after an Israeli rescue operation used an area nearby to whisk away hostages, raising concerns about whether its workers would be seen as neutral and independent in the conflict.

The watchdog report also alleged the United States had failed to honor commitments it had made with the World Food Program to get the U.N. agency to agree to take part in distributing supplies from the pier into Palestinian hands.

The U.S. agreed to conditions set by the WFP, including that the pier would be placed in north Gaza, where the need for aid was greatest, and that a U.N. member nation would provide security for it. The watchdog report said that step was meant to safeguard WFP’s neutrality among Gaza’s warring parties.

Instead, however, the Pentagon placed the pier in central Gaza. WFP staffers told the USAID watchdog that it was their understanding the U.S. military chose that location because it allowed better security for the pier and the military itself.

Israel’s military ultimately provided the security after the U.S. military was unable to find a neutral country willing to do the job, the watchdog report said.

A U.S. official said the USAID staffer concerns about the project undercutting overall aid efforts were raised early in the process.

Biden’s deceptive show of aiding Palestinians with the pier was built on another deception – that Israel was starving Gazans. Multiple reports about the “fake famine” in Gaza showed that Gazans had ample food throughout the war, with one report even saying that there was even more food available in Gaza during the war than before the fighting began.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)