A floating jetty will be built by the US military to deliver aid to Gaza, which will allow 2 million meals to be delivered daily, according to the Washington Post.

According to the same publication, the construction will take up to two months and will require 1,000 US troops to remain in the open, officials say.

In particular, the US military expects the floating jetty, to be built off the Gaza coastline in the coming weeks, will allow the delivery of 2 million meals a day to Palestinians, the Pentagon said on Friday, outlining its plan to deal with worsening humanitarian crisis there without deploying US personnel directly to the war zone.

Construction of the offshore jetty and the runway connecting it to land will take up to 60 days and require about 1,000 US troops, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

President Biden announced the initiative during his State of the Union address on Thursday, as hopes for a cease-fire in Gaza fade and amid harsh criticism his administration is facing over the massive supply of US arms. which contributed to the massive civilian death toll of the conflict, the Washington Post reports.

The initiative is part of a broader “sea corridor” that the United States and other countries have pledged to establish amid growing concerns about the situation.

Israel’s deep-water port of Ashdod is less than 25 miles from Gaza, but Israeli officials have refused to open its northern border crossing. The Egyptian port of El Arish, just south of Gaza, has been a key arrival point for aid. But all shipments must go through a laborious process of being loaded onto trucks that must then be inspected at an area controlled by Israeli forces, unloaded and reloaded to then join a convoy of vehicles waiting to enter Palestinian territory .

US troops, including the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade based in Virginia, will join the effort. The operation will involve the construction of a floating jetty at sea that will allow ships to deliver aid, which will then be loaded onto Navy support ships and unloaded on a floating path. The two-lane walkway, approximately 1,800 feet long, will lead to a point on land and be picked up and secured on the ground by non-US personnel. Trucks will then have access to the runway to pick up and deliver aid.

Washington along with other countries in the region, the United Nations and humanitarian groups will determine how aid will be distributed once it reaches land, Ryder said.