Israel news: U.S. pushes for improvement in Gaza: reports

WASHINGTON –


U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel must take urgent steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action involving U.S. military aid, according to news reports on Tuesday.


“We are writing now to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X.


The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Israel’s government also could not be immediately reached for comment.


The reports come as Israeli forces expand operations into northern Gaza amid ongoing concerns about access to humanitarian aid throughout the enclave and civilians’ access to food, water and medicine.


The United States last week told the UN Security Council that Israel needs to address urgently “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries.


The secretaries’ letter cited Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act, which restricts military aid to countries that impede delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.


It also cited a National Security Memorandum that U.S. President Joe Biden issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.


U.S. officials earlier this year said Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using U.S.-supplied weapons during its military operation in Gaza.


(Reporting Phil Stewart, Humeyra Pamuk, Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Verve Times is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a Comment