GAZA: The US plan to establish a temporary port for aid deliveries to Gaza will take up to 60 days to carry out and will likely involve more than 1,000 American personnel, AFP quotes the Pentagon as saying.

US President Joe Biden announced the plan the previous night during his State of the Union address, in which he pleaded with Israel to let more assistance into the blockaded territory even as he defended its military operation against Hamas.

The United States will “establish a temporary offshore maritime pier that allows for shipping vessels to transfer cargo to smaller vessels to transport and offload cargo to a temporary causeway for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

“We anticipate that it’ll take over 1,000 US forces to participate in building this capability” and “up to 60 days in order to deploy the forces and construct the causeway and the pier,” Ryder said.

Once established, the new facility “could provide more than two million meals to the citizens of Gaza per day,” he said, adding that “there will be no US forces on the ground in Gaza” as part of the effort, in which Washington will be “working with regional partners”.