After weeks of declining to back growing international calls for “humanitarian pauses” in Israeli airstrikes to allow a steady flow of aid to enter Gaza, permit American and foreign citizens to exit into Egypt and facilitate the release of hostages, the Biden administration is now fully in favor of them and is pressing Israel to agree.
The abrupt policy shift comes as the humanitarian situation inside the enclave has become more dire and much of the world has declined to follow the U.S. lead in withholding public criticism of how Israel is conducting its war against Hamas.
David Satterfield, President Biden’s special envoy to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, has been in Israel this week seeking progress on both aid and egress to Egypt. But according to U.S., United Nations, Egyptian and Israeli officials, many of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity amid a welter of finger-pointing among those involved, no substantive progress has been made.
So what you’re saying is that international pressure CAN work to change the behavior of those propping up an apartheid regime?
Yay for relearning the lessons of the 90s politicians have tried so hard to erase from our collective memories!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After weeks of declining to back growing international calls for “humanitarian pauses” in Israeli airstrikes to allow a steady flow of aid to enter Gaza, permit American and foreign citizens to exit into Egypt and facilitate the release of hostages, the Biden administration is now fully in favor of them and is pressing Israel to agree.
The abrupt policy shift comes as the humanitarian situation inside the enclave has become more dire and much of the world has declined to follow the U.S. lead in withholding public criticism of how Israel is conducting its war against Hamas.
“We are saying that the Israeli side should do the responsible thing for the foreign nationals in Gaza and allow them” to leave, meaning “do not attack authorities or areas they need to be in to be able to go out,” Diaa Rashwan, chairman of the State Information Service said.
“The verification system for the movement of goods through the Rafah crossing must be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement Friday.
Meanwhile, a growing minority of congressional Democrats — at least 18 — has called for some version of a pause or a ceasefire — “a dirty word” as one Capitol Hill lobbyist put it — amid international outcry over the plight of Palestinians trapped inside Gaza.
Civilians in Gaza “cannot survive without access to water, food, medicine, and fuel — and resources cannot get to those who need it without a temporary cessation of hostilities for humanitarian workers to do their jobs safely,” they wrote.
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