U.S. says it secured further commitments from Israel as Gaza aid situation deteriorates

Published November 14,2024

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The U.S. has secured additional commitments from Israel within the final two days concerning the state of affairs within the Gaza Strip, the White House stated on Wednesday.

The improvement comes as experiences from assist teams stated Israel had not met U.S. assist calls for inside a 30-day interval outlined in an Oct. 13 letter.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan instructed reporters he met Tuesday with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer for a “detailed” and “constructive” dialogue on the present state of affairs within the Middle East.

Noting the U.S. push to extend the quantity of humanitarian help getting into Gaza, Sullivan stated: “We have made some progress in that regard. We extracted further commitments from the Israeli side over the course of the past couple of days.”

“We want to see those commitments followed through on,” he stated.

“We believe that we can continue to work on all of the relevant issues, whether it’s humanitarian assistance or it’s ensuring the defense of Israel against Iranian attacks or it’s working on cease-fire efforts and hostage deal in Gaza, or it’s ultimately bringing a diplomatic resolution to Lebanon, which we’re actively working on,” he stated. “We’ll continue to do that every day that we have remaining in office.”

He stated that the Biden administration despatched a sign to the incoming Trump administration that it’s ready to coordinate on the Gaza hostage deal, including that the subject was lined in a gathering between President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump on the White House on Wednesday.

The Oct. 13 letter, signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, outlined particular calls for, together with a requirement for at least 350 assist vans to enter Gaza every day and a directive to chorus from adopting a controversial legislation that may ban all United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) actions in Israel and the occupied territories.

Eight humanitarian assist organizations, together with Anera and Oxfam, launched a report on Tuesday that stated Israel “not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”