Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sparred over whether the U.S. forces who will be on the pier off Gaza’s coast for humanitarian aid constitute having “boots on the ground” in the strip.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he would not put U.S. forces in Gaza, though during his State of the Union address last month, he announced that he directed U.S. troops to build a temporary pier and causeway in the Mediterranean Sea to increase the amount of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. The roughly 1,000 U.S. forces involved in the mission will not physically be on Gazan soil.