US president Joe Biden says US forces will build a temporary dock in Gaza to ramp up the delivery of aid.
The move was announced in his State of the Union speech on Thursday.
“Tonight, I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” the president said, according to The Guardian.
Biden pledged there will be no US troops on the ground in the territory.
“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” he added.
Opening up a sea route will take several weeks, it is estimated.
US military engineers will build the facility from supplies brought in by naval vessels off the coast of the old Gaza City port, aid sources told the newspaper.
Aid will be shipped in from Larnaca in Cyprus.
The equivalent of hundreds of truckloads of materials will be brought in daily.
An announcement is expected to follow from the other countries and charities involved in the sea corridor, one of which is the United Arab Emirates.
The UN said last month that more than a quarter of the strip’s population of 2.3m risked starvation without a huge aid effort.
Israeli officials will be able to inspect the shipments in Larnaca, US officials explained.
This has echoes of the Ukraine grain export plan involving Russian checks on ships.
Bringing more aid into Gaza is also one of the Houthis’ key objectives in its attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea, along with a ceasefire in the territory.
One US official cited by The Guardian said: “We will coordinate with the Israelis on the security requirements on land and work with the UN and humanitarian NGOs on the distribution of assistance within Gaza.”
Israel “fully supports” the plan, an Israeli official told Reuters.
The US has turned to the sea because too few trucks are making it into Gaza at two southern access points.
