As negotiations are ongoing to achieve a ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip, work continues on the United States purported “humanitarian pier” off the coast of the enclave.
First unveiled during Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in March, the concept is reportedly designed to help increase the flow of food into the territory as Israel limits the entry of aid convoys through land crossings. The embattled US president has portrayed the idea as a signal of his concern for the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 34,000 have been killed amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s onslaught in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack.
But various observers have suggested the project is not all that it seems, fearing the pier could serve as a foothold for espionage or even military operations by Western powers. Journalist Elijah Magnier joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Monday to offer analysis as Israel signals an imminent assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
“Benjamin Netanyahu [is] not only saying that they would go to Rafah regardless, but starting to bomb Rafah and dropping leaflets on the population asking them to evacuate,” noted the veteran war correspondent, insisting the Israeli leader will move forward in invading the city regardless of the outcome of current peace talks. It was recently reported that Hamas had accepted a ceasefire proposal negotiated with the help of Egypt as concerns mount over the fate of 1.5 million Palestinians currently sheltering in Rafah.
“Netanyahu doesn't want the deal,” Magnier claimed. “It is not in his advantage to reach any deal. He only wants all the prisoners and the hostages to be released to [resume] the war.” The Palestinian group Hamas has consistently rejected demands to release Israeli captives without an assurance of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
IDF spokespeople have confirmed that a “significant” proportion of the Hamas-held hostages are Israeli military personnel captured during Hamas’ attack on security installations tasked with overseeing Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory. Hamas is also calling for the release of hostages held by Israel, which detains thousands of Palestinian civilians without charge.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has proposed establishing refugee camps in northern Gaza for Palestinians in Rafah to flee to before Israel begins its promised invasion of Rafah.
“What they are saying is we will send 40,000 tents and allow a place in the north, allow them to return to the north, where they can sit in camps or in other tents but don't start the operation in Rafah before you remove the 1.5 million,” said Magnier, explaining the Biden administration’s position. “This is the only difference between the Americans and the Israelis.”
White House officials have promoted the administration’s “humanitarian pier” concept as a way to ensure the provision of aid to relocated Palestinians. But Magnier claimed the port is being built not to allow food to be brought into Gaza, but to facilitate Palestinians being removed from the enclave.
“They want to close the crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and, most probably, push the Palestinians for another Nakba through the pier they are going to construct,” the reporter proposed.
The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians coinciding with Israel’s founding in 1948. The act was accomplished with the aid of self-avowed Zionist terrorist groups such as Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah which attacked and burned Palestinian cities, killing tens of thousands.
“Tantura was a rich village and had beautiful houses,” said former Israeli soldier Yosef Diamont in a documentary on Israeli television, recalling Zionists’ assault on the Palestinian town. “Its residents lived like Europeans and the women of the village used to wear nice clothes.”
“One of the soldiers raped a sixteen-year-old girl,” he said, laughing. “The events there were horrendous… There was a [Zionist] with us, he took them [Palestinians] and put them in a cage and killed them... They imposed a cover-up. There were soldiers who took flamethrowers and ran after the villagers and burned them. It was horrible.”
Israel’s ruling Likud party has long claimed the territories of Gaza and the West Bank, considered Palestinian land under international law, as part of “Greater Israel” – insisting Arabs must be expelled from the territories to complete Zionists’ colonization of historic Palestinian land. Last year, a plan by Israeli intelligence leaked proposing the forced transfer of millions of Palestinians in Gaza into Egypt’s Sinai Desert.
Egypt objected to the proposal as did the Biden administration, fearing the plan would threaten Egypt’s historical defense of Israel dating back to 1978’s signing of the Camp David Accords. But hardline members of Netanyahu’s coalition including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have continued to openly insist on complete Israeli occupation of the territories.
So far, the Biden administration has shown little willingness to challenge its Israeli ally. A reporter recently asked the US president whether unprecedented demonstrations on college campuses throughout the country might cause Biden to reconsider his “ironclad” support for the country. Biden responded to the inquiry with a succinct, “no.”