The U.S. Army vessel is en route to the Mediterranean Sea to initiate construction of a temporary pier along the Gaza coastline, aimed at facilitating the passage of additional humanitarian aid to Palestinians facing severe deprivation.

However, officials caution that it may take up to two months before the pier becomes operational.

According to the military’s Central Command, General Frank S. Besson departed from a base in Virginia less than 36 hours after President Joe Biden announced the humanitarian initiative during his State of the Union address on Thursday.

The plan entails dispatching more food and medical supplies to the temporary pier in Gaza from nearby Cyprus, following inspections by Israeli forces to ensure no weaponry is included for Hamas militants, who have been engaged in a conflict with Israel for the past six months.

Watch the related report by Arash Arabasadi:

The temporary pier is needed because Gaza has no port infrastructure and Gaza has been under an Israeli navy blockade since 2007, when Hamas took control of the enclave. There have been few direct sea arrivals since then.

A Spanish charity ship carrying food aid was expected to soon set sail from Cyprus. The nongovernmental group Open Arms said its vessel would carry 200 tons of food, which its partner, the U.S. charity World Central Kitchen, would then unload on the shores of Gaza where it had constructed a basic dock.

Meanwhile, no cease-fire has been agreed to as had been hoped for by the start of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which starts at the first sighting of the crescent moon on Sunday and Monday.

Hamas negotiators left Cairo talks last week but said negotiations would resume in the coming days on a possible six-week halt in Gaza fighting. In addition, the release of some of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by the militants in exchange for dozens of Palestinians jailed by Israel and a big increase in humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza were some of the terms discussed.

Both Hamas and Israel blamed each other for the failure to reach a cease-fire, with Israel demanding the names of hostages held by Hamas and the militants pushing their call for a full end to the war even as Israel vows to erase any vestige of Hamas rule in Gaza.

The conflict started on October 7 with the shock Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 240 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry, the majority of those killed are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed thousands of militants.

The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving and that the daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 that entered before the war because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.

The U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Northern Gaza on Sunday, dropping more than 11,500 meal equivalents, as well as other food including rice, flour, pasta, and canned food into the territory.

But officials say the airdrops are insufficient to cover the vast food needs in Gaza. Five people were also killed days ago when a food pallet hit them.

As the war rages on, U.S. President Biden has stepped up his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s oversight of the war, even as Biden has maintained his support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas.

In an interview on MSNBC on Saturday, Biden said he believes Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” because of the high death toll of Palestinian civilians.

The U.S. leader said Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.” He added that “you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

In Gaza, Palestinian casualties continued to mount. Gaza officials said at least nine Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City late Saturday.

Footage shared by the civil defence showed first responders pulling out the dead and injured trapped in the collapsed house. One rescuer was seen holding a dead infant, before placing the limp body on a sofa amid the wreckage.

Elsewhere, the bodies of 15 people, including women and children, were taken to the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.

Relatives said they were killed by Israeli artillery fire toward a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the coastal area east of the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel rarely comments on specific incidents during the war. It has held that Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties because the militant group operates from within civilian areas.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.