Israel says opening Gaza aid routes
JERUSALEM—Israel announced on Friday that it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over the Gaza war.
Also on Friday, the Israeli military said it had sacked two officers and reprimanded a senior commander over the “grave mistake” that led to the death of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen.
“The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures,” a military statement said following an inquiry.
On Thursday, in a tense, 30-minute phone call, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that US policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the first hint of possible conditions to Washington’s military support.
Just hours later, in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, Israel announced it would open more aid routes into blockaded Gaza.
Israel’s war Cabinet authorized “temporary” aid deliveries via the Ashdod Port and the Erez land crossing, as well as increased deliveries from neighboring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Netanyahu’s office said.
Mounting pressure
The White House quickly welcomed the moves—calling them “at the president’s request”—and saying they “must now be fully and rapidly implemented.”
Israel has come under mounting international pressure over the toll inflicted by its six-month war on Hamas, and drawn increasingly tough rebuke from main backer Washington.Since the Oct. 7 attacks that launched the war, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, and sparked warnings about catastrophic hunger.Palestinians in northern Gaza have had to survive on an average of just 245 calories per day—less than a can of beans—since January, according to Oxfam.
Charities have repeatedly accused Israel of throttling aid and targeting convoys, with the dangerous work of trying to stem a famine underscored this week by an Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers distributing food in Gaza.
“The strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to a White House readout of their call.
Biden also “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action” to improve the humanitarian situation.Longtime Israel supporter Biden is facing growing pressure in an election year over his response to the Gaza war—with allies pressing him to make the billions of dollars in military aid Washington sends dependent on Netanyahu listening to calls for restraint.
‘Growing frustration
’US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Biden’s “growing frustration” with Netanyahu, but reiterated that US support for Israel’s security was “ironclad.”
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas, including in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, while pledging to move more than one million civilians in the city out of harm’s way first.Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen staff had “reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, specifically focusing on the need to ensure the evacuation of Palestinian civilians and the flow of humanitarian aid.”
In a call to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, Austin also “discussed the threat posed by Iran and its proxy activities,” according to the Israeli army.
Israel was blamed for an air strike on Monday on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed in a social media message that “with God’s help we will make the Zionists repent of their crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus.”
The Israeli military said that after a “situational assessment, it was decided to increase manpower and draft reserve soldiers.” —with reports from AFP, Reuters
