Israel’s Gaza aid policy hasn’t changed since US letter, Israeli official says
Israel’s aid policy in Gaza has not changed since US President Joe Biden’s administration sent a letter last week calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk violating US law, an Israeli military official in said Wednesday.
“The policy of the state of Israel hasn’t changed, not before the letter, not afterwards,” said Col. Elad Goren, the Israeli military’s head of the humanitarian-civil effort in the Gaza Strip. “The policy is to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian assistance into Gaza without any limits,” Goren, who is part of Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), told reporters in a news briefing.
The October 13 letter, written by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, demanded that Israel act within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting US military aid could be in jeopardy.
Goren said that in the letter, the US “connected some facts,” but “got the wrong picture.” Goren said Israel had closed the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza for “a tactical, operational reasons,” adding that it will open “after there is no threat.” He added that some demands in the US letter were already implemented before the letter was sent, which Israel “will continue to work with them (US) in order to implement and to facilitate, like the number of trucks that needs to enter Gaza.”
Other elements will not be implemented “because of security reasons,” he said, without providing details. Israel nonetheless “took this letter very seriously,” he added.
On Wednesday, Blinken said some progress has been made, “but more needs to be done.”
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