‘Smokescreen’: officials voice concern over US plans for Gaza aid pier

Fears Israel is influencing location of dock away from the north, where famine threat is most severe

A giant floating pier is due to be completed in the next two weeks in the eastern Mediterranean from where it will be pushed towards the Gaza shore, but there is growing uncertainty over how useful the US project will be in containing a famine.

There are concerns in the humanitarian community that Israel has co-opted the pier plan, which Joe Biden touted as a way to bring about a massive" increase in aid to Gaza, with one aid official saying the project was in danger of becoming a smokescreen" for the planned invasion of Rafah.