Beijing, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The floating wharf built by the US government in the Gaza Strip at a huge expense has been criticized by the media as a "model project" that cannot achieve the task of receiving humanitarian relief supplies advertised by the United States. In response to public doubts, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Agency for International Development announced on the 27th that they would launch a joint investigation into the project.
The website of the American "Politico" reported on the 27th that Pentagon Inspector General Robert Stoch said that the Department of Defense and the Agency for International Development have launched a "coordinated independent monitoring project" to assess the role of these two departments in the delivery and distribution of humanitarian relief materials to the Gaza Strip.
The Office of the Inspector General of the Agency for International Development (USAID) has prioritized the distribution of supplies to assess whether there are problems with the delivery of food aid, the agency's partner in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations World Food Programme. The Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defence is responsible for assessing whether the military is providing effective assistance in the transportation of relief supplies.
The New York Times reported in the middle of this month that the floating dock was completed and put into use in mid-May this year, and was originally expected to be shut down when the sea rose sharply in September, but since it "cannot complete even the least challenging tasks," the US side is considering abandoning the terminal as soon as July.
According to the report, since the official opening of the wharf, the actual operation time has only been about 10 days, and the rest of the time is either damaged by the waves and needs to be repaired, or it is dismantled and hauled to Israel to avoid being completely washed away by the waves.
The U.S. Central Command said on the 14th of this month that it had received a total of 3,500 tons of supplies since the opening of the terminal. However, some international aid organizations have pointed out that most of the supplies are not reaching the Palestinian people, and that an average of only seven truckloads of supplies enter the Gaza Strip through the US terminal every day, a far cry from the US target of 150 truckloads per day.
The Associated Press previously reported that the initial estimate of the cost of building this terminal is about $320 million. The U.S. Department of Defense lowered its assessment to $230 million earlier this month. Congressional Republicans have used it to blast President Joseph Biden's Democratic administration for pushing through the money-burning program in an effort to boost poor public support. (Jiang Guopeng)