Pentagon and USAID launch oversight reviews of US pier and humanitarian aid for Gaza amid repeated challenges

CNN —

The Pentagon and USAID Inspectors General have launched coordinated reviews of the US humanitarian mission to Gaza where the military’s temporary pier has faced repeated challenges, including breaking apart and the distribution of aid being paused by the UN due to security concerns on the ground.

The Defense Department IG will look specifically at the “effectiveness of DoD’s efforts to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza through the maritime corridor,” a press release on Thursday, announcing the effort, said. The USAID IG will look at the agency’s “plans and controls” over the distribution of aid from the pier, and particularly the handoff of aid from the pier to the World Food Programme.

The pier — called the Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS — was first established on the Gaza coast in May. It has had to be re-anchored twice: once after it broke apart in heavy seas, a week after it was anchored for the first time, and again when it was disconnected intentionally in anticipation of more heavy seas.

The review comes as some congressional Republicans have railed against the troubled pier as a “waste of taxpayer dollars” that “defies all logic.”

On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to senior administration officials in which he said “the operation has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars.” Earlier this month, Sen. Roger Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee was even more blunt. “This needs to end immediately,” he said in a statement.

WFP has had their distribution of aid from the pier paused for more than two weeks