Biden's slight of hand in Gaza

 

The Cradle 

US building Gaza port to facilitate mass 'voluntary' migration: Anadolu Agency

The US claims the port is to facilitate humanitarian aid but could be used to ethnically cleanse Gaza per previously leaked Israeli plans

 

A US military ship set sail on 11 March to travel to the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip to build a temporary port.  

However, doubts about US intentions for the port's construction continue to emerge.

Hisham Khreisat, a Jordanian military and strategic affairs expert, suggested the motivation for building the port was instead to facilitate the deportation of Gaza's population by ship.

Khreisat told Anadolu Agency that "the floating port off the shores of Gaza is a humanitarian facade hiding voluntary migration to Europe."

"This military tactical port will receive Israeli approval because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking this idea since the beginning of the war, aiming for the voluntary displacement of Gazans and their [flight] to Europe," he added.

The White House claims it wishes to build the port to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of starvation due to Israel's blockade.

But the BBC noted that the port would take at least 60 days to build and that "charities have said those suffering in Gaza cannot wait that long."

If the US wished to stave off famine in Gaza, it could simply use its leverage as Israel's leading supplier of weapons to force Tel Aviv to allow more aid to enter by truck convoys through existing land crossings.

On 13 October, just days after the beginning of the war on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence issued a document calling for the forcible expulsion of the strip's 2.3 million inhabitants under a humanitarian guise.

The leaked document recommends making conditions in Gaza so uninhabitable that its population would be forced to flee to other countries, including Egypt's Sinai, Greece, Spain, and Canada.

Israel could justify the deportation to the international community, the plan stated, if it appears to lead to "fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain," the document says.

Israel's horrific bombardment of Gaza since 7 October has created just such conditions, killing at least 30,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.

The risk of famine, caused by Israel's blockade, has also created conditions to make the deportation of 2.3 million Gazans appear as a humanitarian gesture.

These conditions could further be created should Israel conduct a ground operation in Rafah, where over a million Gazans displaced from other areas of the strip are sheltering.

Egypt has so far refused to allow Gazans into the Sinai, making deportation by sea to Europe more attractive for Israeli planners.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also issued a warning about the US plan to build a temporary port off the shore of Gaza.

The resistance movement emphasized that the US plan is "suspicious and dubious," as it would open the door to the forced displacement of Gaza's population under humanitarian and other pretexts.

The movement also accused President Joe Biden of establishing the port to appease public opinion in the US. As the presidential election nears, large segments of his Democratic voter base have criticized Biden for his support for Israel's ongoing Genocide in Gaza, including the lack of aid reaching starving Palestinians.

The PFLP statement added that the Palestinian Resistance will remain vigilant and will confront any "suspicious US plans or any other actions that might compel Palestinians to be expelled to liquidate the Palestinian cause."

The statement further confirmed that the US presence would be a legitimate target for the Resistance.