Tipsheet

Terrorists Launch Attacks on Americans Building Biden’s Gaza Pier

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  April 25, 2024 7:45 AM

Terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip launched a series of attacks on Americans building President Joe Biden's "humanitarian pier" this week.  

"Gazan terrorists fired mortar shells on Wednesday towards the construction work on the humanitarian pier being built off the coast of Gaza," i24 News reports. "i24NEWS has learned that several pieces of American engineering equipment were damaged in the attack. In addition, one person was slightly injured while running to a protected area."

Biden announced the construction of the pier, being done by the U.S. military, during his State of the Union address in March -- prompting serious concerns from lawmakers about U.S. troop safety and lack of sober threat assessment. As a number of Republican Senators wrote to Biden on March 28: 

We have strong reservations about your directing the United States military to establish a temporary pier on the Gaza Coast. While we acknowledge that this decision was taken with the consent of the Israeli government, we are concerned that the mission entails a significant risk to U.S. personnel. We are also concerned that this approach fails to address the main causes of the humanitarian crisis.

First, this deployment ignores the most basic cause of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis: the fact that Hamas ignited the current war on October 7 by murdering 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, and taking another 240 hostages, including 12 Americans. The conditions for ending the war and the ensuing humanitarian challenges are the same today as they were on October 7: Hamas’ surrender and the return of the approximately 140 remaining hostages, including six Americans.

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Second, based on what has been shared with the Senate Armed Services Committee thus far, this decision appears to ignore force protection issues entirely against an enemy that tries to kill Americans every day. We are gravely concerned that the Department of Defense has given too little consideration to the likelihood that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations operating in Gaza would attempt to attack the U.S. personnel that will be deployed to this mission. Since October 7, Iran-backed proxies, of which Hamas and PIJ are two, have attacked U.S. forces in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and off the coast of Yemen. Hamas is blatantly indifferent to the humanitarian crisis that its October 7 massacre has wrought, and it is unlikely to be deterred by the humanitarian nature of the U.S. mission to establish a pier off the coast of Gaza.

There is no apparent plan to secure distribution, to keep aid in civilians’ hands and out of Hamas’. The latter would provide Hamas sustenance to continue fighting rather than force it to return the hostages and end the war.

Iranian backed terrorist organization Hamas, which started the war against Israel on October 7, continues to steal aid trucks sent into the area by Israel, Jordan and other countries. Hamas is still holding 133 hostages, including five Americans. 

At a March 8 Pentagon briefing, officials gave little reassurance the pier could be protected from terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip. 

Q: Does the DoD anticipate that Hamas will try to fire on them, on the operation (inaudible)?

GEN. RYDER: Look, I mean, that's certainly a risk, again, but if Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then again, one would hope that this international mission to deliver aid to people who need it would be able to happen unhindered.

Former national security officials and experts warn the pier could be a floating death trap for U.S. troops and a scenario that could lead to another Abbey Gate situation.