Biden’s trip to Israel may enable humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza
The U.S. hoped to break a deadlock over delivering aid to increasingly desperate civilians in besieged Gaza following a brutal attack by Hamas militants, as President Joe Biden was set to head to Israel and Jordan on Wednesday, AP reports.
Aid workers warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege, with hundreds of thousands of people seeking shelter, ever-decreasing water supplies and power running out at hospitals.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to go into the tiny, densely populated territory, and trapped civilians — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — were hoping desperately to get out.
Mediators were trying to reach a cease-fire to open the border, which shut down last week after Israeli airstrikes, but by Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, arrived in Tel Aviv for meetings with Israeli military authorities ahead of a Biden visit planned for Wednesday to signal White House support for the country. Biden will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears that the fighting could expand into a broader regional conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had returned to Israel after a six-country tour through Arab nations, said in Tel Aviv that the U.S. and Israel had agreed to develop a plan to enable humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza. There were few details, but the plan would include “the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way.”early Tuesday it was unclear who was keeping the crossing closed.
