Israel says it will not stop aid from reaching Gaza via Egypt after a crippling days-long siege in the Palestinian territory brought vital supplies to a standstill. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the decision was made at the request of President Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday.
Aid from Egypt can only include food, water and medicine for civilians in southern Gaza and is allowed as long as the supplies do not go to Hamas, which rules Gaza, Netanyahu’s office said. Israel said it would not allow aid flows across its own border into the Gaza Strip while Hamas held hostages.
It is unclear when urgently needed aid would enter the area through the Rafah border crossing, the only official passage between Egypt and Gaza. Mr Biden said in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that the US was working closely with regional partners to get trucks on the way “as quickly as possible”.
The announcements came a day after a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital that officials said killed at least 500 people in Hamas-controlled territory. Mr. Biden backed Israel’s clear denial of responsibility for the blast, saying U.S. military data led him to conclude it was caused by a Palestinian missile and not an Israeli airstrike.
The explosion in Gaza City – which Palestinian leaders and neighboring Arab nations quickly blamed on Israel – complicated Mr Biden’s already difficult diplomatic mission amid escalating tensions in the region and fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas would worsen could expand significantly.
President Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/Portal
Officials in Gaza say Israeli bombing of the Palestinian enclave has killed nearly 3,500 people and injured more than 12,000 others, most of them women and children, since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers.
In Israel, officials say around 1,400 people were killed and 3,500 others were injured in the Hamas attack. Hamas is reportedly holding nearly 200 hostages and 13 U.S. citizens remain missing.
In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Mr Biden decried the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and vowed that the world would “not stand by and do nothing again” as he said it did when Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust .
He also said that there was “no higher priority” for him than ensuring the release of the hostages held by Hamas.