Hamas Politburo member Osama Hamdan has described the floating pier the US set up off the Gaza Strip coast as "a political stunt".
"The floating port that the American administration established on the coast of Gaza was nothing but propaganda and a political show to save the face of this administration," Hamdan said during a speech broadcast by Arab television channels.
The politburo member added that this pier did not solve the problem of food shortages in Gaza.
Previously, the New York Times cited sources as saying that President Joe Biden's administration was disappointed with the use of the floating pier for sending humanitarian aid to Gaza, as the project failed to meet even modest goals. Later, a representative from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, Georgios Petropoulos, expressed that the US operation to create a floating pier for humanitarian aid in the enclave was unsuccessful.
Amidst a deteriorating humanitarian situation, President Joe Biden announced the creation of a system to ensure maritime delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza sector in March.
NBC reported earlier, citing knowledgeable sources in the US and Israeli governments, that the US military suspended maritime delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza due to damages to the floating pier incurred during a storm. During the storm, four small US military boats were detached from the pier, resulting in two being washed ashore in Gaza and two in Israel. Prior to this, three American military personnel working on the pier were injured, one of whom is in critical condition.