Fox News Digital has obtained satellite images showing the now-destroyed temporary pier the U.S. military installed on the coast of Gaza earlier this month.
The $320 million structure lasted roughly a week before choppy weather battered it apart. President Biden’s administration says it is working to repair the pier, but they offered no timeline for completion. The pier had been used as a conduit for delivering aid to Gaza.
The images show that less than a third of the pier remains intact, and there is no sign of the remnants of the deeper sections of the structure.
The U.S. announced that it was forced to suspend deliveries of aid to the pier on Tuesday, though much of the damage occurred prior to then.
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Four vessels that had stabilized the pier broke off due to choppy waters earlier this week, leading to the deterioration.
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Of the four stabilizing vessels that detached earlier this week, two of the boats floated northward and landed on a beach in Ashdod, Israel, while the two others remain anchored at the beach near the pier.
While the pier has been used to transfer roughly 569 metric tons of aid into Gaza, none of that aid had been delivered to Palestinians as of last week, the Pentagon confirmed.
The pier’s failure comes as Israel conducted a sizable operation in Rafah, with tanks rolling into the heart of the city for the first time since the war began.
Witnesses in Rafah told Reuters the Israeli military appeared to be using remote-operated armored vehicles, as there was no immediate sign of personnel in or around them. The Israeli Defense Forces did not comment on those reports.