Wicker, colleagues urge Biden against deploying service members to build pier off Gaza coast

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) recently led 11 of his Republican colleagues on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in demanding that President Joe Biden explain how his administration intends to proceed with operations to construct a pier in war-torn Gaza.

“We have strong reservations about your directing the United States military to establish a temporary pier on the Gaza Coast,” wrote Sen. Wicker and the committee members in a March 21 letter sent to Biden.

“While we acknowledge that this decision was taken with the consent of the Israeli government, we are concerned that the mission entails a significant risk to U.S. personnel,” they wrote. “We are also concerned that this approach fails to address the main causes of the humanitarian crisis.”

Among the lawmakers who joined Sen. Wicker in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Joni Ernst (R-IA).

The senators pointed out in their letter that the deployment ignores the cause of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis: the fact that Hamas ignited the current war on Oct. 7, 2023, by murdering 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, and taking another 240 hostages, including 12 Americans. 

“The conditions for ending the war and the ensuing humanitarian challenges are the same today as they were on Oct. 7: Hamas’ surrender and the return of the approximately 140 remaining hostages, including six Americans,” Sen. Wicker and his committee colleagues wrote.

Additionally, Hamas is unlikely to be deterred by the humanitarian nature of the U.S. mission to establish a pier off the coast of Gaza, and while the humanitarian need there is significant, there is already a large backlog of humanitarian trucks waiting to enter Gaza, according to their letter.

“We urge you to redouble your efforts to compel Hamas to release the hostages, which would end the war and improve the humanitarian situation without deploying U.S. service members to the shores of a war zone,” wrote Sen. Wicker and his colleagues.