The pier could take as long as 60 days to build, but once established, it could facilitate the delivery of 2 million daily meals into the enclave, the Pentagon said last week. On Saturday, Centcom said the dispatched logistics support vessel “is carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies.”
Biden expressed optimism on Saturday that a Gaza cease-fire deal ahead of Ramadan, which begins Monday, was still “possible.”
“My CIA director [is] in that region right at this minute still talking about it,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC, referring to William J. Burns. “I think it’s always possible. I never give up on that.” However, Biden also said a day earlier that a cease-fire by the first fast of the Muslim holy month was “looking tough” amid stalled negotiations.
The proposed deal would pause fighting for six weeks to free some hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, as well as increased humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. But Hamas has been pressing for a more durable end to the fighting, which Israel opposes.
In Saturday’s television interview, Biden said he thinks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than he’s helping Israel” and urged him to “pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
He said an Israeli invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza, would cross a “red line,” though he said: “I’m never gonna leave Israel.” Biden said there was “no red line” in which he would “cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
The United States sees the potential cease-fire deal as the first of three phases to secure the release of hostages and give civilians in Gaza relief during Ramadan, The Washington Post reported. Burns toured the Middle East over the past several days trying to push talks over the finish line.
Civilian suffering in Gaza has worsened, with hunger and a lack of aid beginning to claim lives, local health officials say. At least 25 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday. A 2-month-old baby and a 20-year-old woman were the latest casualties.
Aid groups say the crisis is man-made, the result of insufficient entry points for supplies, Israel’s arduous inspections and attacks by Israel on U.N. aid convoys and the police securing them.
Here’s what else to know
U.S. and Jordanian forces delivered humanitarian aid into northern Gaza by air on Sunday, Centcom said. According to the statement, a U.S. military transport aircraft dropped over 11,500 Jordanian-provided meals “to provide essential relief to civilians in Gaza.” It said “follow-on aerial deliveries” were being planned.
Israel’s military said it identified “approximately 35 launches” from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted. Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces have exchanged cross-border fire on a near-daily basis. Around 200 members of Hezbollah have been killed, many of them not on active duty. About a dozen civilians have also been killed in the fighting.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel is avoiding giving guarantees for a comprehensive ceasefire. Speaking during a live address Sunday, he said he heard through Qatari mediators that there was no Israeli commitment for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza, “meaning [Israel] wants to retake hostages and resume the war on our people and our strip,” he said, adding that Hamas “does not at all want” a deal that doesn’t end the war, return the displaced, and push the Israel Defense Forces out of Gaza.
At least 31,045 people have been killed and 72,654 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 248 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
Hazem Balousha in Amman and Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.
