US urges Israel to improve humanitarian situation in Gaza, or risk military aid

2024-10-15 20:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The United States has warned Israel that it must improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip immediately or risk losing American military support.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their counterparts in a letter sent on Sunday that there must be changes.

The letter, which highlights the US position on humanitarian aid and arms supplies, comes as conditions in northern Gaza have worsened and following reports that Israel bombed a hospital tent in central Gaza, killing at least four people and a fire broke out that caused severe burn injuries to dozens of people.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters late Tuesday that the US knows it is possible to get more aid into Gaza and that logistical and bureaucratic hurdles can be removed.

"We need to see additional changes from the Government of Israel," Miller said, adding that Washington hopes Israel will make the changes requested in the letter.

For Israel to continue to be eligible for foreign military aid, the amount of aid entering Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must establish additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian zones, they said. Austin and Blinken on paper.

An Israeli official confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to discuss its contents.

Despite repeated and vocal demands from the Biden administration to scale back the offensive, Israeli military bombings have caused unnecessary civilian deaths and risked plunging the region into a much wider war.

Aid groups fear Israel's leaders could approve a plan to completely block humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in a bid to starve out Hamas - the US and EU-designated terrorist group.

But, according to them, doing so could leave hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who are unwilling or unable to leave their homes, without food, water, medicine and fuel.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since an October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas in Israel sparked the war between them.

The war has wreaked havoc and displaced more than 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

The war began when Hamas launched an attack on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 250 others, according to Israeli officials.

The United States has spent a total of at least $17.9 billion to aid Israel militarily since the war began, according to a report by Brown University's Costs of War Project.

That aid has enabled Israel to buy billions of dollars worth of ammunition, which it has used in its war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, many of Israel's attacks have also killed civilians in both countries./REL