US soldier, 23, injured on Gaza pier in May dies: report
A US soldier who was injured while delivering aid to Gaza on President Biden’s failed floating pier in the spring died from his injuries on Thursday, CNN reported Monday.
Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, 23, was one of three US service members hurt May 23 while working on the temporary floating pier that Biden had announced with great fanfare during his State of the Union address in March.
The other two service members suffered minor injuries and returned to work after the incident, which the Pentagon has said was not combat related.
Stanley, who was critically injured, had been undergoing longterm medical care. An obituary for the young soldier described him as a native of Columbia, SC.
“Sgt Quandarius 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,” Col. John “Eddie” Gray, the unit’s commander told CNN on Monday.
“We will continue to provide support to his family during this difficult time. Our entire unit mourns alongside his family.”
The $230 million pier was intended to be a visual example of how the US was helping humanitarian aid flow into the war-torn region as Israel sought out Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian enclave. But thanks to “rough weather and high seas,” the pier only operated for 20 days.
The White House had expected that it would allow delivery of enough provisions to feed an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians over a three-month period.
But the pier ultimately delivered less than a third of that for roughly 450,000 Palestinians before it was decommissioned on July 17, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report issued in August.
The same report found that Biden had prematurely charged ahead with the temporary pier despite the urgings of multiple federal aid workers.
With far-left Democrats pressuring the Harris-Biden administration to stop supporting Israel’s war efforts against Hamas, the president pitched the pier as a way to placate concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance
getting into Gaza every day,” Biden told lawmakers.
But almost no implementation planning had taken place before Biden’s announcement, according to the report, forcing State and Defense Department officials to scramble to handle the order.
The Army did not immediately reply to requests for comment.