- Over nine thousand Palestinians have lost their lives as a result of Israeli forces encircling Gaza City.
- President Joe Biden faced a challenge after the House approved a $14.5 billion military aid package.
- The White House has suggested several small-scale fighting pauses to facilitate the delivery of aid.
Over nine thousand Palestinians have lost their lives as a result of Israeli forces encircling Gaza City. The US and Arab leaders are exerting pressure on Israel to temporarily lift the blockade and cease its attacks to aid civilians, while the UN is issuing warnings of “genocide”.
There are worries that the battle with Hamas will enlarge throughout the area and entice more adversarial factions. The Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened Israel with more strikes unless Israeli forces ended their campaign by launching missiles and drones toward the country.
$14.5 billion in aid
Republicans and President Joe Biden faced a challenge after the House approved a $14.5 billion military aid package for Israel, but it did so in a partisan manner. With the hope that New Delhi will label the group as a terrorist organization, Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon praised India’s efforts to aid Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv and will be meeting with Israeli leaders for the entire day. Compared to his previous visit, his schedule is more constrained.
He will spend an hour with Benjamin Netanyahu before seeing President Isaac Herzog and the Israeli war cabinet. The United States hopes that more progress in enabling the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza will come from these meetings.
The Arab neighbors of Israel are becoming more vocal in their criticism of Israel’s ground operation against Hamas. Following these discussions, Blinken travels to Jordan to have direct conversations with a few of those Arab leaders.
The US has clear objectives: it wants to keep showing its support for Israel; it wants to limit the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza; and it wants to keep the Israeli-Hamas war from engulfing the entire region in escalating violence.
With the reopening of the Rafah crossing, a restricted number of foreign nationals and civilians were able to exit the Gaza Strip. Although there has been a change in tone, the US has still pledged to fully support Israel’s attacks in Gaza and to increase military aid to it. Blinken promised to discuss “concrete steps” to reduce civilian casualties as he departed for the Middle East.
The White House has suggested several small-scale fighting pauses to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza or the execution of evacuations; however, it has emphasized that these would be far short of a ceasefire, which it feels would be advantageous to Hamas.
