Is Joe Biden $320 million Gaza pier sinking? What we know 

A floating pier on the shores of the Gaza Strip, set up to provide a lifeline to the Palestinian territory, has faced a rocky start, with one report claiming that it was “sinking.”

President Joe Biden announced the project in March to help transport supplies to the territory, which has been hit by Israel’s bombardment, as it fights a war against Hamas prompted by the militant group’s surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Amid international calls for the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian assistance into the territory, aid groups have started using the pier to distribute aid, but use of the facility has not gone smoothly.

What Is the Gaza Floating Pier?

The construction of the floating pier and its causeway, or Trident section, anchored to the Gaza shore adjacent to the north of the Netzarim corridor, was completed May 10.

Two months earlier, Biden announced the pier with the hope of averting famine in northern Gaza by providing seaborne access for assistance, as calls grew for Israel to ease access for relief supplies into the territory via land routes.

The Pentagon said the project involved about 1,000 U.S. service members, mostly from the Army and Navy. One U.S. defense official told Reuters the cost had risen to $320 million—double the original estimate from earlier this year.

This caused concern among some, such as Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, who told the agency the cost had “exploded” and was a “dangerous effort with marginal benefit.”

What Are the Problems?

Video posted on social media by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday showed the American pier “sinking in the water,” The Jewish Press reported, although it is unclear how much of the structure, which was bobbing up and down, was under water. The soldier who shot the video is overheard saying: “This is what happens when you help the enemy,” the outlet said.

Columnist and author Caroline Glick posted on X an image of the pier with the message: “The Biden pier in Gaza is sinking into the sea….($320m sinking along with it…)”

It is unclear whether the images were linked to an incident on Saturday in which four American vessels connected to the floating pier disconnected from the jetty due to stormy seas. U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM, said the vessels had broken free from their moorings, leading them to get stuck on the coast.

One ship was stuck on a beach at the southern end of Ashdod, while another sent to extract it also got beached. The two other vessels were washed up on a beach near the pier, according to CENTCOM, which added the Israeli Navy helped with their recovery and that no one had been injured in the incidents.

But other problems have beset the pier, with Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary, saying last month that bad sea and weather conditions had delayed the delivery of the components for the construction.

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of United States Central Command, told reporters last week that deliveries from the pier to warehouses inside Gaza had been initially hindered by a Hamas drone attack on the IDF and some aid trucks were looted en route, CNN reported.

However, more than 500 metric tons of aid offloaded at the pier has been handed off to humanitarian partners, two-thirds of which is in the process of reaching those in need, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said last week, according to CNN.

Newsweek has contacted USAID, CENTCOM and the Israeli foreign ministry for comment.