Biden spent $230 MILLION building a pier into Gaza for aid... before it broke apart after just 21 days

However, the pier was hit with problems after it broke apart and sustained damage in heavy seas back in May.

While the pier has brought in 8,100 metric tons of aid to a marshalling area on Gaza's shore since it started operating, the 1,200-foot-long (370-metre-long) floating pier has had to be removed multiple times because of bad weather.

Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said the military unsuccessfully tried to re-anchor the pier earlier this week. There was no new date for a re-anchoring, but the effort would soon end.

"The pier has always been intended as a temporary solution to enable the additional flow of aid into Gaza during a period of dire humanitarian need...the pier will soon cease operations."

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the pier had helped bring urgently needed food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, but there were now additional supplies entering the Palestinian enclave via land routes.

He said: "The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza. It's about getting aid around Gaza effectively."

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The US military estimates the pier will cost more than $200million and involve about 1,000 service members. Separately on Thursday, the Senate narrowly voted to block legislation introduced by Republican Senator Ted Cruz that would have cut off funding for the pier.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: "We welcomed the pier as an additional resource while it worked. We will keep pushing for what we actually need, which is large-scale road transfer of aid into Gaza."

It comes as the Israeli military published the findings of a first probe into its own security failings during the October 7 Hamas attack, acknowledging it hadn't protected the citizens of one of the worst hit communities, Kibbutz Be'eri.

More than 100 people were killed in the attack on Be'eri, a community of about 1,000 people, and 32 taken hostage to Gaza, 11 of whom are still there.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza from ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 38,345, health authorities in the Palestinian enclave said on Thursday.

A further 88,295 people have been wounded in the besieged strip since the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out last October, the health authorities said. During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army had killed 50 people and wounded 54 others, the health authorities said in a press statement.

Palestinian media reported that in the early hours of Thursday, the Israeli army continued with heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling on a number of refugee camps including those in the Nuseirat area in central Gaza, and Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza.

Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said that his country is applying military pressure on Hamas through different means, and the Israeli army will not remain "motionless". The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had killed dozens of Palestinian militants in a joint ground and air operation in the Shuja'iyya area of Gaza City.