Washington, 7 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The US army and its partners plan to set up a temporary harbour on the coast of the embattled Gaza Strip to provide additional aid to civilians, according to a senior government representative in Washington.

"Tonight in the speech, the president will announce that he's directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters," the senior official said, referring to US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address scheduled for Thursday evening.

The plans come amid Washington's concerns that the aid flowing into Gaza is "nowhere near enough and nowhere near fast enough," a second official said.

The port will mainly consist of a temporary pier that is to allow for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, with hunger growing among the population ever since fighting broke out between Israel and the Palestinian extremist Hamas movement following the October 7 massacre.

Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, when they attacked southern Israel on October 7, kidnapping some 240 more.

Israel responded with relentless bombardment of the sealed-off Palestinian coastal area and launched a ground operation into Gaza in order to eliminate Hamas.

So far more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the fighting, according to the Hamas-run authorities there.

Photo: EPA