President Biden is to announce on Thursday during his State of the Union address that the U.S. military will build a port in Gaza.
The development was revealed earlier Thursday by a senior administration official discussing humanitarian aid for the Hamas-controlled territory.
"Tonight in the speech, the president will announce that he's directing the U.S. 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 official said.
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Declining to get ahead of the Department of Defense in terms of the number of personnel involved in the operation and security questions, the official said mechanisms would be established with assistance from the United Nations and humanitarian partners to distribute the aid on land within Gaza.