(AP) Julia Frankel - The Biden administration said Tuesday that Israel has made progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to do a month ago. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, "We, at this time, have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law." The Biden administration last month set a deadline expiring Tuesday for Israel to "surge" more food and other emergency aid into Gaza or risk scaled-back military support. Israel opened a new crossing in central Gaza for aid to enter, announced an expansion of the coastal "humanitarian zone," and connected electricity for a desalination plant. Israel's new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said Monday he was confident "the issue would be solved." COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said Tuesday that 900 truckloads of aid are sitting uncollected on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south. "Before the [international aid] organizations give out grades, they should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them," COGAT said.
2024-11-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive