U.S. Army ships are moving to the Eastern Mediterranean to build a pier to supply civilians in Gaza with essential supplies, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said today.
The ships will establish a roll-on, roll-off capability that will allow ship-to-shore humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. “We expect the pier to be fully operational in approximately 60 days which will be able to facilitate the delivery of about 2 million meals per day,” Ryder said.
The seaborne delivery will complement other means of getting essential supplies to Gazans. The United States is air-dropping food and supplies to Gaza and the U.S. Agency for International Development is working to get land routes open to those who need the supplies.
Ryder noted that U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian air force conducted another combined air drop into northern Gaza today. Air Force C-130s dropped more than 5,280 pounds of food including rice, flour, pasta and canned food.
This was the eighth U.S. air drop to Gaza. “C-130s and their aircrews have dropped over 204,000 meals, 48,000 bottles of water and more than 5000 pounds of food items,” Ryder said.
In a separate announcement, Ryder said the United States will send another package of aid of $300 million to Ukraine. This one-time aid through the president drawdown authority will support Ukraine’s immediate air defense and anti-tank requirements.
“To be clear, we were able to provide this PDA due to negotiated savings on contracts to replace equipment from previous drawdowns for Ukraine,” Ryder said. “As a result of these cost savings, we were able to authorize a new PDA package for Ukraine today without additional significant impacts to U.S. military readiness.”
Ryder said the aid does not begin to meet Ukraine’s needs as Russian forces continue their attacks on the country. “We urgently need Congress to pass DOD supplemental requests,” he said. “Today’s PDA package, while providing urgent capabilities to Ukraine’s forces, is nowhere near enough. And the only way to meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs is for Congress to swiftly pass the supplemental.”
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This article, U.S. Ships Leave Virginia for Gaza, More Equipment to Flow to Ukraine, was first published by The Department of Defense.