The United States is making a great effort to emphasize that its temporary floating pier off the coast of central Gaza was not used in the IDF special forces operation to rescue four living hostages this weekend.
“The humanitarian pier facility, including its equipment, personnel and assets were not used in the operation to rescue hostages today in Gaza,” wrote the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in a post a few hours later on the X social media platform.
“An area south of the facility was used by the Israelis to safely return the hostages to Israel. Any such claim to the contrary is false,” CENTCOM wrote.
“The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was put in place for one purpose only, to help move additional, urgently needed lifesaving assistance into Gaza.”
The Israel Defense Forces corroborated the report.
IDF Denies Hamas Lies, Did Not Use US Pier in Hostage Rescue
CENTCOM, as well as the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, did however congratulate Israel upon the successful rescue operation.
Congratulations to the Israeli Security Forces and the people of Israel for the successful rescue and return to their families of the four hostages seized on October 7.https://t.co/2X44PkRkaJ
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 9, 2024
Hamas terrorists and other Gazans have claimed the pier was used by the IDF during its extraction of the hostages from their captivity.
Some of the claims are based on video footage posted to social media that showed one of the hostages boarding an IDF Apache helicopter on the beach a few hundred meters away from the pier.
It is clear from the footage, however, that a helicopter could not even land on the floating pier due to its weight and the aerodynamics involved in such an attempt, let alone take off safely from the dock.
The pier was only reinstalled this past Friday, after having been towed to Ashdod for multiple repairs after having broken away from its moorings due to choppy seas and high winds.
Helicopters themselves create precisely the same conditions when they land and upon liftoff.
