From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Senior US official says Israel not behind aid distribution woes in Gaza
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
A senior US official says Israel is not behind the limited distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“I wouldn’t say there is sufficient humanitarian aid going into Gaza — by no stretch of the imagination, but it is not because Israel is trying to impede it,” US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf says in testimony to a Senate subcommittee.
She says a series of factors are behind the dire humanitarian situation, including a breakdown in security apparatuses needed for the distribution of aid once it enters the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Gaza.
“As the IDF has stepped back, various violent actors have stepped in, to the point where the much-diminished Hamas enforcers cannot get control of independent families and gangs,” Leaf says, adding that humanitarian workers are facing incredibly high risks and that the US is working with Israel to ameliorate some of these issues.
Aid organizations have argued that Israel’s continued military operations are the reason for the distribution bottlenecks, with convoys routinely held up or turned back at IDF checkpoints throughout the Strip. Israel announced that it would be implementing daily localized pauses to allow more aid to be distributed earlier this week, but aid groups say they have yet to lead to improvements on the ground.
Jerusalem has routinely argued that the UN and other agencies are failing to keep up with the amount of aid it is getting into Gaza.
