By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHNGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday told a senior Israeli official that the steps Israel has taken to better the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza must lead to actual improvement on the ground, the State Department said on Tuesday.
Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to their Israeli counterparts on Oct. 13 with a checklist of specific steps to address the worsening situation in the Palestinian enclave amid a renewed Israeli offensive.
Washington gave Israel 30 days to comply and said results on the ground would determine whether or not enough had been done. Washington has not yet said whether it deems Israel to have complied.
In a meeting on Monday, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer updated Blinken on the policy decisions the Israeli government has taken to address the requirements, along with operational changes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“The Secretary emphasized the importance of ensuring those changes lead to an actual improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, including through the delivery of additional assistance to civilians throughout Gaza,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, on Sunday published a list of Israel’s humanitarian efforts over the past six months, “highlighting recent initiatives and detailing plans to sustain support for Gaza as winter approaches.”
International aid groups said on Tuesday that Israel had not only failed to meet U.S. demands but even taken steps that “dramatically worsened” the situation on the ground.
For more than a month, Israeli forces have been pushing deeper into north Gaza, surrounding hospitals and shelters and displacing new waves of people in an operation they say is designed to prevent Hamas fighters regrouping.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
