Biden warns Netanyahu about blocking food aid to Gaza
The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to US weapons funding, according to AP.
It is rapidly becoming clear that Israel wants to impose starvation on many parts of Gaza by blocking vital food aid trucks into areas under fire.
However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated October 13th that this can no longer continue.
For Israel to continue qualifying for foreign military financing, “the level of aid getting into Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must institute additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian sites”, Austin and Blinken said in their letter. They said Israel had 30 days to respond to the requirements as humanitarian aid has fallen to new all time low.
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“In fact, it’s fallen by over 50 percent from where it was at its peak,” Miller said at a briefing. Blinken and Austin “thought it was appropriate to make clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again, to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today.”
The letter itself made it clear that Biden doesn’t want to leave the White House with the legacy of a famine in Gaza, funded by his administration.
“We are particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government, including halting commercial imports, denying or impeding 90 percent of humanitarian movements” and other restrictions have kept aid from flowing, Blinken and Austin said.
The Biden administration is increasing its calls for its ally and biggest recipient of US military aid to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while assuring that America’s support for Israel is unwavering just before the US presidential election in three weeks. In reality though US support has been limited to only proving THAAD defence system to support Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ and will not entertain any ideas of war with Iran.
AP