Biden to announce U.S. military to build temporary port in Gaza for humanitarian aid

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden will announce in his State of the Union address that the U.S. military will build a temporary port in Gaza for the delivery of additional humanitarian aid to civilians, senior U.S. administration officials said Thursday.

"Tonight in the speech, the President will announce that he's directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean, on the Gaza coast, that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters," one of the officials said during a call with reporters.

The official added that the project, "the main feature of which is a temporary pier," is expected to become operational in "a number of weeks," at which time it "will provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day."

U.S. forces involved in the mission "are either already in the region or will begin to move there soon," the official said.

The officials didn't provide much detail about the plan, with one noting that it won't require "U.S. troops on the ground" to build the port. Instead, the U.S. military will work "from just offshore," collaborating with partners and allies and "working on commercial options."

The plan is another indication of Biden's growing frustration with the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is carrying out the military operation in Gaza to root out Hamas. It shows a shift of U.S. strategy away from solely counting on Israel's willingness to allow more aid into Gaza, at a time when the humanitarian crisis becomes more dire day by day for the Palestinians amid Israeli offensive.