Head of US aid agency says Israel pledged to improve safety conditions for humanitarian staff in Gaza

US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, left, talks to Robt Pellech, manager of the containers department of Ashdod port as they visit the area where cargo ships arrive, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza Strip, in Ashdod, Israel, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, left, talks to Robt Pellech, manager of the containers department of Ashdod port as they visit the area where cargo ships arrive, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza Strip, in Ashdod, Israel, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The head of the US agency overseeing American humanitarian assistance worldwide says she has received Israeli pledges to allow aid workers to move more quickly and safely throughout the war-battered Gaza Strip.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, says that Israel has also taken new steps to increase the flow of aid through its port of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. The move could give donors a new option for delivering aid as the US shutters its troubled maritime pier off Gaza’s coast.

Nine months into the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, the announcement marks a small victory for international efforts to increase aid deliveries to the enclave’s desperate civilians.

“We have not seen the kind of humanitarian system to this point that has allowed humanitarians to move efficiently and safely to the degree that we need,” Power says. “This week and through this visit, we have secured an agreement.”

“My whole career has been working in and around conflict areas,” says Power, a former war correspondent and US ambassador to the United Nations. “I have never seen a more difficult conflict environment for humanitarians to work in.”

She adds that her talks with the Israeli officials focused heavily on improving the system by which humanitarian groups and the military coordinate safe passage.

There is no immediate comment from the Israeli military or COGAT, the military body in charge of coordinating aid into Gaza. Power says it will take time to implement the changes, but that the US is pushing for improvements “not a month from now, but a week from now.”

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