President Joe Biden will announce a plan in his State of the Union address for the US military to establish a temporary port on the Gaza coast to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered territory.
Officials said the operation will not require American troops be on the ground to build the pier that is intended to allow more shipments of food, medicine and other essential items.
They did not provide details about how the pier would be built but noted that the US military has “unique capabilities” and can do things from “just offshore”.
Five months of fighting between Israel and Hamas have left much of Hamas-run Gaza in ruins and led to a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
Many Palestinians, especially in the devastated north, are scrambling for food to survive.
Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.
The latest White House move provides one more layer to the extraordinary dynamic that has emerged as the US has had to go around Israel, its main Middle East ally, and find ways to get aid into Gaza, including through airdrops.
Mr Biden last week first raised the idea of establishing a “marine corridor”, saying the US was working with allies on how it might provide assistance from the sea to those in Gaza.
General Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee, that he had briefed officials on such a maritime option.
Also on Thursday, the US conducted a third airdrop in the northern part of Gaza, where there is no Israeli presence. Mr Kurilla said Central Command has provided options for increasing the number of trucks taking aid to those areas.
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