WASHINGTON DC: The U.S. is demanding that Israel boost its humanitarian aid to famished Palestinians in Gaza within the next month or face the possibility that the United States would cut its military aid supporting Israel’s yearlong war against Hamas militants.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told top Israeli officials in a letter Sunday that Washington has “deep concern” over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and seeks “urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory.”
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the missive was meant to be a private diplomatic communication but confirmed its veracity.
For months, even as Israel’s fight against Hamas has raged on, the U.S. has repeatedly pressed Israel to ramp up its humanitarian assistance — food, water, medical supplies, fuel and other goods — to Palestinian civilians.
But the humanitarian effort has waxed and waned, the effort hampered by the theft of goods by the militants, continued fighting near drop-off sites, and disputes over entry points into Gaza.
While some left-wing U.S. lawmakers have urged the administration of President Joe Biden to cut off military aid to Israel to pressure it to reach a cease-fire deal to halt fighting, the United States has continued to supply it, most recently on Sunday when Biden said he ordered the Pentagon to send Israel an advanced missile defense system and deploy about 100 U.S. troops to operate it.
The new U.S. effort to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza, the narrow territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, comes as Israel has both ramped up attacks on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and renewed its assaults on Hamas in northern Gaza.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas, designated as terror groups by the U.S., are financially and militarily supported by Iran.
At the same time, Israel has ordered about 400,000 Palestinians remaining in the northern third of Gaza to leave the region and move south out of harm’s way. But humanitarian aid remains a distinct concern.
The U.S. told the U.N. Security Council last week that Israel needs to urgently address “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries.
(VOA)
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