The U.S. military’s cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid has risen to $320 million, a U.S. defense official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 U.S. service members, mostly from the Army and Navy.

Still, the cost has roughly doubled from initial estimates earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters, when asked about the costs.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    443·
    6 months ago

    I’ve got a great cost-saving idea!

    Withhold all aid from Israel until they start allowing serious amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza!

    Boom! 320 million saved, AND a far greater amount of aid reaches Palestinians! Win-win!

    Yeah. I wish there was the support available for that.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
        12·
        6 months ago

        Why in the everloving fuck do alternative methods end-running Israel to get food, water and medicine to civilians in Gaza need to be built? There are airports and docks that can be used right next to the zone, and Israel controls the roads.

        If they acted like anything except a tin-pot dictatorship, this would be completely unnecessary. But here we are. The sooner the ICC swears out a warrant for the nazis in charge, the better. Then maybe we can get some human beings in charge that know how to run a functioning democracy.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
        92·
        6 months ago

        The pier was built to lessen the political effects of letting Israel bar the literal convoys of aid out of the country they are committing genocide in.

        It’s a 320 million USD version of thoughts and prayers.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
    412·
    6 months ago

    Republicans are all for sending weapons at any cost, but line itemize humanitarian aid. Fucking monsters. Maybe they should just pay it out of Israel’s $26B aid package.

    • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
      621·
      6 months ago

      Why singling out Republicans? Dems voted to fund Israel and Biden signed the bill. Republicans aren’t in charge right now so not sure what you’re on about.

  • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    101·
    6 months ago

    Honestly, it doesn’t sound all that expensive. But they need to hurry up, or they won’t be anyone left to feed.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    4·
    6 months ago

    I love how the US is simultaneously supplying weapons to Israel while dropping food and building piers for the country Israel is bombing. Wait until Israel bombs the pier.

    Someone is getting rich AF off this.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    42·
    6 months ago

    Eh, chalk it up as a training exercise. Rapid construction of docks is something that might need to happen in an amphibious assault. We had to do it for D-Day.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour

    In the autumn of 1942, the Chief of Combined Operations Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, outlined the requirement for piers at least one mile (1.6 km) long at which a continuous stream of supplies could be handled, including a pier head capable of handling 2,000-ton ships.

    Maybe try to figure out how to do it more-cost-effectively based on this.

    And I wouldn’t be surprised if people in the Levant will be using it for a long time to come, so someone will get good out of it.

  • Ænima@lemm.ee
    2·
    6 months ago

    I guess if I had to pay taxes to get some sort of aid, any aid inside Gaza or to subsidize an oil leech’s record profits, I’d be fine funding 10 such piers.

  • S491@lemmy.world
    37·
    6 months ago

    It’s not for aid, it’s so they can export the newly extracted natural gas from the now razed Gaza