A U.S. Army soldier died last week after suffering non-combat injuries earlier this year while supporting President Joe Biden’s humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza, the military announced Monday.
Sergeant Quandarius Davon Stanley, 23, sustained critical injuries in May while working on the U.S.-built pier, which Biden said would support the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Stanley recently retired from the military due to the injuries and was undergoing treatment at a long-term care facility before his death on Oct. 31.
“Stanley was an instrumental and well respected first line leader in the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary (TBX), especially during the mission to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza,” Colonel John Gray said.
Two other service members sustained minor injuries during the pier’s operation and have since returned to duty, the Times of Israel reported.
The Pentagon dismantled the $230 million Gaza pier in July after just three weeks of operation. The corridor helped the U.S. military deliver 137 trucks of aid into the war-torn region, but several of the trucks were intercepted before they could reach the civilian population.
Aid groups criticized the project as ineffective and wasteful. Its 20-day operation was plagued by rough weather and security problems that drastically limited the amount of aid entering Gaza.
Biden, who first announced the pier’s construction during his State of the Union speech in March, expressed his disappointment over the project’s failure at a news conference in July.
“I’ve been disappointed that some of the things that I put forward have not succeeded as well—like the port we attached from Cyprus,” Biden said. “I was hopeful that would be more successful.”
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