The broken $320 million pier off the coast of Gaza is just the latest in a series of costly U.S. military and humanitarian aid mishaps under the Biden administration, following criticism for failed actions in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Niger.
The $320 million pier off the coast of Gaza was intended to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians, but rough weather and choppy seas damaged it after less than two weeks of use. U.S. taxpayers are carrying the cost of rebuilding the pier at a southern Israeli port, but it is unclear how much that will cost. The Pentagon has yet to respond to Just the News’ inquiry about the pier’s repair costs, but it is expected to be back up and running by next week.
The cost of the pier is more than monetary. Three U.S. Marines assigned to the mission suffered non-combat injuries last week.
n addition to the pure cost of construction, there is also the raw cost of the aid that is being given to Gazans.
More than 1,000 metric tons of food aid was brought to Gaza by the pier for trucks to distribute before it was shut down. Although the exact cost of this food aid was not readily available, a potential baseline for costs could be $2,500 per ton, which a 2016 U.S. Air Force study found is the price of ground transport for a ton of food. This could put the cost of food at around $2.5 million.
The U.S. has also conducted multiple airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The aforementioned Air Force study determined that the cost of airdrops is about $16,000 per ton of delivered aid.
U.S. Central Command said in April that “the U.S. has dropped approximately 855 tons of humanitarian assistance supplies.” Using the 2016 cost of a ton of air delivery, as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Inflation Calculator, it appears that the airdrops into Gaza could cost the U.S. more than $17.7 million.
The air drops received heavy criticism from experts who said that it was not a practical solution. Additionally, Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defense claimed that an airdrop killed five people in March.
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