US Gaza pier knocked out

A temporary pier built by the US military to deliver aid to Gaza has been damaged by heavy seas and will take at least a week to be repaired, according to US officials.

US forces began building the floating pier - which is attached to Gaza's shoreline by a temporary causeway - several weeks ago.

The causeway portion of the project has now reportedly broken off and will have to be repaired before being returned to its position.

Humanitarian organisations have warned that the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza is only a fraction of what is required to meet the needs of its population.

The pier, which was first announced by US officials in March, is comprised of two main components: a large floating dock made up of steel segments and a two-lane, 1,800ft (548m) causeway and pier.

The causeway part of the project is composed of a series of interconnected, 40ft (12m) steel pieces linked together and attached to shore.

On Tuesday, US officials told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that a portion of the causeway broke away in heavy seas.

While it is tethered to Gaza's shoreline, the piece will need to be removed and taken to the Israeli port of Ashod to be repaired before it can be re-attached to the causeway and back in action.

Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East and one of the founders of Fogbow, a private firm involved in the Gaza pier plan, told the BBC that weather-related delays were "expected" to "pose challenges".

"But those challenges can be overcome, and the mission itself is worth the effort," he said. "People are in desperate need of aid and this is one means to deliver it."

On 17 May, the US military confirmed that the first shipments of humanitarian aid were delivered into Gaza via the pier, but in a separate incident last weekend four vessels supporting the pier became unmoored in "heavy sea states", beaching two of them.

Source: BBC (Bernd Debusmann Jr,BBC News, White House)