Faced with Israeli delays and blockades on the delivery of humanitarian aid by land to a Gaza Strip suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe, US President Joe Biden had announced in early March the construction of an artificial port. US military vessels "have begun construction (...) of the temporary port and pier at sea," Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder told reporters. This temporary seaport should allow military or civilian ships to unload their cargo there. The humanitarian aid will then be taken by support vessels to a pier on the Gaza coast. US officials said the operation would not involve "ground troops" in the war-torn Palestinian territory. However, US soldiers will be near the Gaza Strip during the construction of the port and pier, which is to be overseen by Israeli troops. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will likely be in charge of distributing the aid once it is delivered to the territory, the Pentagon had said. Israel on July 8 launched a war on the Gaza Strip to "eradicate" the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory hours earlier, killing 1,163 people, mostly civilians. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel - also took 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 have died in the meantime, according to the latest figures from the Israeli authorities. The war, which entered its 202nd day today and continues to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, has so far killed more than 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip, injured more than 77,000 and left thousands missing and presumably buried in the rubble, mostly civilians, according to updated figures from local authorities. The conflict has also displaced almost two million people, plunging the overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian enclave into a severe humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a "catastrophic hunger situation" that is claiming victims - "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN in food security studies worldwide. Read Also: Mais de mil colonos extremistas invadem Esplanada das Mesquitas (Portuguese version)