US says it secured 'further commitments' from Israel as Gaza aid situation deteriorates

WASHINGTON

The US has secured extra commitments from Israel in the last two days about the situation in the Gaza Strip, the White House said on Wednesday.

The development comes as reports from aid groups said Israel had not met US aid demands within a 30-day period outlined in an Oct. 13 letter.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters he met Tuesday with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer for a "detailed" and "constructive" discussion on the current situation in the Middle East.

Noting the US push to increase the amount of humanitarian assistance entering Gaza, Sullivan said: "We have made some progress in that regard. We extracted further commitments from the Israeli side over the course of the past couple of days."

"We want to see those commitments followed through on," he said.

"We believe that we can continue to work on all of the relevant issues, whether it's humanitarian assistance or it's ensuring the defense of Israel against Iranian attacks or it's working on cease-fire efforts and hostage deal in Gaza, or it's ultimately bringing a diplomatic resolution to Lebanon, which we're actively working on," he said. "We'll continue to do that every day that we have remaining in office."

He said that the Biden administration sent a signal to the incoming Trump administration that it is prepared to coordinate on the Gaza hostage deal, adding that the topic was covered in a meeting between President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

The Oct. 13 letter, signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, outlined specific demands, including a requirement for a minimum of 350 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily and a directive to refrain from adopting a controversial law that would ban all United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) activities in Israel and the occupied territories.

Eight humanitarian aid organizations, including Anera and Oxfam, released a report on Tuesday that said Israel "not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza."