Officials from the United States Department of Defense estimate that building a floating pier to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza will cost American taxpayers more than $320 million—almost double what the project was anticipated to cost.
First reported by Reuters, sources familiar with the project indicate that the new budget projections, published internally only recently, have skyrocketed in just a few short months. The 270-foot pier, first announced during President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address in March, is intended to allow aid ships to make deliveries to Gaza without endangering American personnel or requiring US military presence on the ground.
However, since the announcement, costs have steadily ticked upwards, and the project now involves more than 1,000 service members from the Navy and Army—and construction has only been in progress since last week.
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“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) of the Senate Armed Services Committee told Reuters. “This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days.”
As Valuetainment previously reported, suspected Hamas militants launched mortar rounds at the “marshaling area” last week, but did not inflict any casualties on American personnel, the visiting United Nations delegates, or Israeli military forces stationed nearby. Though the sea-based construction is still “nowhere near mortar range,” the attack has raised concerns about possible dangers to American servicemen in the area.
“How much will taxpayers be on the hook once – or if – the pier is finally constructed?” Wicker asked. “For every day this mission continues, the price tag goes up and so does the level of risk for the 1,000 deployed troops within range of Hamas’ rockets.”
“This has been an ill-conceived mission from the start. Every day when these ships have been in transit was another day terrorists in Gaza have been preparing to thwart their arrival,” the senator wrote in a statement last week.
“In any case, the risk to Americans will only intensify. President Biden should never have put our men and women in this position, and he should abandon this project immediately before any U.S. troops are injured.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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