Blinken: Israeli moves may fall short
LEUVEN, Belgium — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the measures the Israeli government has announced to expand the flow of aid into Gaza are welcome but may not be enough to meet the Biden administration’s demands for dramatic improvements in humanitarian conditions in the territory.
Blinken said that opening more border crossings, if fully implemented, has the potential to surge assistance to Palestinians caught in the fighting between Israel and Hamas. However, the U.S. also wants to see tangible steps to bolster the protection of civilians and aid workers, he said.
In addition, he called for an “independent, thorough and fully publicized investigation” into the recent killings of aid workers.
“We welcome that steps that have been announced by Israel,” Blinken said after the military announced that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their role in fatal strikes Monday on a convoy of aid workers. “These are positive developments but the real test is results and that’s what we’re looking to see in the coming days and the coming weeks.”
At the same time, he said the U.S. wanted to see a “better system for de-confliction and coordination” so that aid can be safely delivered and distributed inside Gaza.
“All of these things are critical and that really needs to be measured by results,” Blinken told reporters in the town of Leuven, outside Brussels, where he was meeting with U.S. and European trade and commerce officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced early Friday that Israel would act to improve conditions, including reopening a key border crossing into northern Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office said the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, which was partially destroyed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, would temporarily reopen. It also said Israel would allow its Ashdod port, 22 miles north of Gaza, to be used to process aid shipments bound for the territory and allow increased Jordanian aid shipments through another land crossing. The announcement did not elaborate on quantities or types of items to be let in.
Israel declared war on Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages.
Israel’s blistering air and ground offensive has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, an enclave that in parts remains under Hamas control.
The offensive has displaced more than 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.