Four U.S. Army vessels supporting the temporary pier in the Mediterranean Sea used to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ran aground because of heavy seas.
"The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier," U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a news release Saturday. "The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. Efforts to recover the vessels are under way with assistance from the Israeli Navy."
Israeli Defense Forces is supporting the recovery efforts near the pier and no U.S. personnel will enter Gaza, CENTCOM said. No injuries were reported, and the pier remained fully functional.
U.S. soldiers reportedly were forced to go ashore in Israel on the beach near Ashdod, just north of Ashkelon, to free the vessels. President Joe Biden promised in his State of the Union address in March that there would be no "boots on the ground" to support the pier.
It's the latest setback in what has not been a smooth effort to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians caught in Israel's military operation against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists. The flow of aid was temporarily interrupted when delivery trucks were overrun, resulting in the death of at least one person.
A U.S. soldier was critically wounded, and two other soldiers were injured on a staging platform two miles off the coast of Gaza being used to transfer aid from the cargo ship MV Roy P. Benavidez to a smaller U.S. Army watercraft moving the aid to the Gaza shoreline.
One of the craft that was beached on the shore of Ashdod on Saturday was freed from the sand, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, citing a U.S. military official.
The U.S. Army LCM 8558 landing craft was beached after trying to free a U.S. Army tugboat that was helping to move the floating pier from an area off the Gaza coast to near Ashdod because of adverse weather conditions, the Post reported.
The USAV Matamoros, a larger U.S. Army landing craft, came to aid the LCM 8558 on Saturday afternoon, the Post reported. It took time to connect a rope from the Matamoros to the LCM, but by midday Sunday, a rope was attached, and the LCM was ready to be pulled off the shore.
The tide remained an issue because low tide was about 6 p.m. local time. At about 9 p.m., a U.S. military official told the Post the LCM was pulled off the beach with the hope that it would remain free of the sand. The goal would then be to take the tug off the beach. Then, the vessels will all be united with the floating pier and likely return to the coast of Gaza so humanitarian aid can be delivered again.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.