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According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the floating dock that will allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza from the sea has been anchored off the Gaza coastline.

The personnel anchored at the dock at approximately 7:40 a.m. local time, “supporting the humanitarian mission of delivering additional humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians,” CentCom said in a statement. The dock had traveled from Ashdod port to the Gaza coastline, about 50 kilometers away, on Wednesday.

Centcom said trucks were expected to begin delivering humanitarian aid in the coming days, while the United Nations would coordinate distribution into the besieged area, adding that no US troops would enter Gaza.

The Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) system consists of two parts: a floating dock where the shipment will be unloaded and an elevated track to move the shipment to a distribution point in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom announced that the first shipment of humanitarian aid, including 8,400 temporary shelters, was headed from Cyprus to Gaza. Cyprus is the entry point for humanitarian aid which will be sent to Gaza via the sea corridor and docks.

“Aid will be distributed within Gaza as quickly as possible,” the UK said in its announcement.

Meanwhile, US humanitarian aid is already on board a ship in the port of Ashdod, which will be offloaded when the dock is ready, the Pentagon said.

The purpose of the temporary dock is to supplement aid arriving through the land crossing into Gaza. The initial aim is to allow the equivalent of 90 trucks of aid to enter Gaza each day through the dock, the UK said, with the number expected to rise to 150 trucks per day once the dock is fully operational.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command, stressed that the dock was not intended to replace land routes to Gaza and that “there will be no US forces on the ground in Gaza.”

He also told how its process would be. First, the aid reaches Cyprus, where it is examined and prepared. Large commercial ships carry that aid to a “floating platform” near the Gaza coast, where it is transferred to smaller ships that can dock at floating docks. Once on the ground, the aid will be distributed in Gaza by the United Nations and the World Food Programme.

There are currently “hundreds of tons of aid ready for distribution and thousands of tons of aid in the pipeline” from many countries, Cooper said.

Last week, CNN reported that the United States still faces several hurdles before JLOTS can become operational. The United States was closely monitoring whether what it called a “limited” Israeli incursion into Rafah in southern Gaza would affect the floating dock. Additionally, the United States has not yet finalized plans for who will deliver humanitarian aid shipments to distribution points in Gaza.

On Monday, the Pentagon said it had hired drivers for the dock, though it declined to identify them.

“I can tell you it’s an outside contractor, but that’s what it is,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said at a news conference. Once humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, the United Nations World Food Program will distribute it to the Palestinian population.

On Tuesday, Ryder said security arrangements had been made to allow JLOTS operations to begin when the dock was ready. “We’re confident we’ll get the protections we need,” he said.

According to the Pentagon, JLOTS will cost approximately $320 million to operate in the first three months.

At the briefing, Cooper also addressed security concerns and said the United States and Israel have developed a plan to protect all personnel working on the project in the area, though he did not share more specific details.

USAID response director Dan Dyckhaus acknowledged that there is an “ongoing risk”, but said that JLOTS and the Causeway “are not exposed to any additional risk beyond the threat that already exists in Gaza.”