Construction by the US military of an artificial, temporary port that is expected to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Gaza Strip is more than half complete, the US Department of Defense announced on Wednesday.

In the face of delays and obstacles raised by Israel in the delivery of humanitarian aid through land routes to the Palestinian enclave, US President Joe Biden announced in early March the plan to build a temporary artificial port.

“To date, we are more than 50 percent complete with the installation of the port,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy spokeswoman, told accredited reporters.

The port, which is expected to cost around $320 million to build, is expected to be operational early this month, according to US authorities. But it cannot replace deliveries via land routes, Washington insists at the same time.

This announcement was made while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in the Middle East.

The head of American diplomacy went yesterday to Kerem Shalom, a crossing point for humanitarian aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip.

The day before Tuesday, Jordan spoke of “real and great progress” in the rate of aid entry, adding, however, that “much remains to be done.”

A senior US government official pointed out once again last week that the entire population of the Gaza Strip (2.4 million) faces food insecurity.

The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas’s military arm launched an unprecedented raid on southern Israel that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

At least 34,568 people, the vast majority of them women and children, have died in the wide-ranging military operation launched by Israel in retaliation to the Palestinian enclave, vowing to wipe out Hamas, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry.