U.S.-installed pier in Gaza infringes on Palestinian sovereignty: official

RAMALLAH, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-installed pier in the Gaza Strip is an infringement on Palestinian sovereignty, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Xinhua that "the U.S.-installed pier was established based on U.S. and Israeli unilateral decision without consulting with the Palestinian Authority(PA)."

It is "a real violation of the Palestinian sovereignty" as Gaza is a part of the Palestinian territories, Majalani said, adding that "it seems that the United States aims at putting us (PA and PLO) in an awkward position."

Instead of establishing such a "controversial" pier, Majdalani noted, "the United States should pressure Israel to open the borders and allow the humanitarian aid to enter to our people in the Gaza Strip."

Majdalani believed that there are political goals that the U.S. is trying to achieve through this port, expressing his fear that the pier will mark the beginning of the displacement of "Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip across the sea, which is tantamount to the implementation of an Israeli plan that Israeli governments have always worked to achieve."

On Friday, a temporary floating pier built by the United States in the Gaza Strip started receiving humanitarian aid. Palestinian security sources said small boats unloaded the aid from a huge U.S. ship floating off the coast and shipped it to the pier.

The pier was built as several land crossings into the Gaza Strip remain closed since Israel took control of the Rafah crossing in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah last week.