‘it’s Not Like The Movies’: Why Delivering Aid To Gaza By Sea Gets Complicated Quickly

The Biden administration is working on a plan to move large amounts of aid into Gaza by sea, possibly via military warships.

But doing so means clearing several significant hurdles, including protecting troops and safely distributing supplies to desperate Palestinians.

The U.S. in recent days has stepped up efforts to get aid into the enclave, where 30,000 people have died since Israel began its operations in October. Last week, dozens of Palestinians were killed while scrambling to pull food from aid delivered by trucks. The U.S. quickly announced it would begin dropping aid using military aircraft and is now actively discussing providing food and supplies by sea as well.

While ships can carry significantly more aid than aircraft or trucks, delivering it by sea is a much more complex operation, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters on Tuesday.

“The maritime route, yes, it can move more volume at sea, but it also is going to require heavier logistics lift and some infrastructure ashore, and very much going to need the support of allies and partners,” Kirby said.

The debate over providing aid by sea highlights fresh tensions between the U.S. and Israel, as Washington has been unsuccessful in pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open access to more humanitarian convoys. It’s unclear whether Israel would support such a maritime operation, given its reluctance to increase the number of aid trucks flowing into Gaza. Israel says its concern is that Hamas could intercept any aid intended for civilians.

One option involves sending one of the U.S. Navy’s amphibious warships, which carry Marines and can launch aircraft and watercraft that ferry cargo directly to the shore, according to three Defense Department officials who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive planning. The U.S. military often deploys these types of ships to respond to crises in disaster zones, for instance delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, cargo and medical supplies to Haiti after a devastating earthquake in 2021.

The USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, which the Pentagon sent closer to Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, is in the Mediterranean. But the unit is heading back to the U.S. and has no plans to go to Gaza, according to one of the DOD officials, but the Pentagon could choose to keep it in the region.

But such an operation is complicated, both logistically and politically. The military typically sends in surveyors to map out the beachfront ahead of time to determine factors such as water depth and what kind of port facilities are in place. It also requires infrastructure and people on the shore to physically offload the landing craft, coordinate with the crew and distribute the cargo, as well as protect the vessel.

“It’s not like the movies. It’s a methodical process to establish a zone in order for your operation to be successful,” the first DOD official said. “No one is storming a beach here.”

Those jobs would normally be done by U.S. military personnel — but the Biden administration has been clear that it doesn’t want U.S. troops in Gaza.

“At this time, there are no plans to put U.S. forces on the ground in Gaza to my knowledge,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder reiterated on Tuesday.

Without Marines and Navy personnel on the shore, the U.S. would likely need to rely on Israel to establish a security zone, both to protect against any attacks by Hamas or Lebanese Hezbollah and to prevent desperate civilians from mobbing the landing craft. The crew would also need to coordinate cargo distribution with aid groups, some of which have tenuous relations with Israel.

The security situation in Gaza is a major concern, according to two of the DOD officials.

“It’s a war zone,“ said the first official. “A ship in port is a sitting duck. You don’t want to incur that risk for an asset such as that. You don’t get it back.”

Retired Vice Adm. John Miller, the former commander of U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, said he does not believe the U.S. military would conduct such an operation in Gaza without sending in U.S. troops.

“The people that do that are trained to do that, so it’s not like you can have a bunch of Palestinians or NGOs, all well-meaning people, just waiting for it,” Miller said. “I don’t see us doing that without a commitment of troops, and then again unless we know it’s a permissive environment, that’s probably a difficult policy to get past.”

The U.S. Navy has not yet been tasked to establish a maritime route to deliver aid to Gaza, said the third DOD official, although there are “plenty of options” if the request does come down. The Army also could deploy its Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore capability, to “essentially build a pier where a pier doesn’t exist,” the official said.

There are other non-military options: for instance, a civilian charter ship, even a contracted ferry, said the first DOD official.

The U.S. is working with Cyprus and other partners on a full slate of options to establish a maritime corridor, a senior administration official said. NSC Chief of Staff Curtis Ried traveled to Cyprus in January to look into their infrastructure to load and send aid to Gaza.

“The fact that we are exploring every avenue, every channel, to get assistance into Gaza really just, I think, goes to speak to how dire and desperate the situation is there,” the senior official said.