Four US Army vessels have departed a base in Virginia carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment they will need to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast for urgently needed aid deliveries, AFP reports.

The new facility — which will consist of an offshore platform for transhipment of aid from larger to smaller vessels and a pier to bring it ashore — is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark”, US Army Brigadier General Brad Hinson told journalists.

“Once we get fully mission-capable, we will be able to push up to two million meals, or two million bottles of water, ashore each day,” he said.

US officials have said the effort will not involve “boots on the ground” in Gaza, but American troops will come close to the beleaguered coastal territory as they construct the pier, which has to be anchored to the shore.

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