Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee led 11 committee members on a letter to President Joe Biden asking how the administration will proceed with its operation to construct a pier in Gaza, according to a statement from Wicker's office released on Thursday.
The senators said they have strong reservations about Biden's directing of the US military to establish the temporary pier in Gaza.
"While we acknowledge that this decision was taken with the consent of the Israeli government, we are concerned that the mission entails a significant risk to US personnel. We are also concerned that this approach fails to address the main causes of the humanitarian crisis," the letter said.
The deployment ignores the most "basic cause of Gaza's humanitarian crisis: the fact that Hamas ignited the current war on October 7."
The senators also expressed concern about terror organizations operating in Gaza attempting to attack US personnel that will be deployed for the mission.
Senators say Hamas is "unlikely to be deterred" by a pier
"Hamas is blatantly indifferent to the humanitarian crisis that its October 7 massacre has wrought, and it is unlikely to be deterred by the humanitarian nature of the US mission to establish a pier off the coast of Gaza," according to the letter.
In the letter, the senators included the questions listed below:
- When was United States Central Command tasked with giving the president options for delivering humanitarian aid directly to Gaza? What other options were presented, apart from establishing a temporary port in Gaza?
- When did United States Transportation Command first learn that it would be tasked with executing this mission?
- What is the projected timeline for executing this mission?
- How many troops will be deployed for this mission, and on what date was that force size determined?
- What is the projected cost of this mission? Please provide a budget, including planning costs, equipment, troop costs, fuel, and any other associated expenses.
- What force protection risks does this mission entail? What are the mission’s force protection requirements? How many of the troops deployed for this mission will be deployed in a force protection mission?
- Are there any unique capabilities that are being deployed for this mission, which therefore will not be available in the event of a contingency elsewhere?
- What is the intelligence community’s assessment of the capabilities of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups in Gaza in terms of their ability to strike U.S. forces who will be deployed in this mission?
- What is the intelligence community’s assessment of whether Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups in Gaza would seek to attack U.S. forces who will be deployed in this mission?
- What are the rules of engagement in the event that Hamas, Palestinian Jihad, or another terrorist group attacks the pier that the U.S. military intends to construct?
- General Kurilla testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 7, 2024. He said that, during a recent visit to Israel, he saw 2,500 aid trucks waiting to enter Gaza, but “the challenge is the security and distribution internal to Gaza.” Since the U.S. military will not (and should not) enter Gaza, what is the plan for bolstering the security of aid distribution within Gaza so that the pier does not become yet another backlogged port of entry?
- Once aid is off-loaded on the shore of Gaza, who will be receiving that aid for distribution within Gaza? What vetting has taken place to ensure that these immediate recipients are not affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other terrorist group within Gaza?
- What is the plan for ensuring that the humanitarian aid will not fall into the hands of Hamas or other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations?
- Given the risk that humanitarian aid will fall into the hands of Hamas or other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, has United States Central Command conferred with the Office of Foreign Assets Control for advice and/or an exception?
- Please provide an update on any Department of Defense efforts and resources that are being used to rescue the hostages that Hamas is currently holding in Gaza. If applicable, are any resources being diverted away from hostage-rescue efforts for the new Gaza pier mission?