TOPLINE
Israel approved Egypt delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday shortly after President Joe Biden arrived and the U.S. and other countries applied pressure to allow the aid, reports say.
KEY FACTS
Israel will allow “food, water and medicine” for civilians in the southern Gaza Strip “as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office; the statement said any supplies that do reach Hamas will be “thwarted” and did not list fuel as one of the allowed supplies.
Netanyahu continued to say Gaza will not receive any humanitarian aid from Israel until its hostages are returned, Haaretz reported.
Israel’s decision was made after a meeting with Biden in which he said he supported the decision and said aid would be suspended if Hamas attempted to control it, Axios reported.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
The prime minister’s office said in the statement that their decision was made “in light of the overwhelming and vital American support for the war effort and in light of US President Biden’s demand for basic humanitarian aid.”
KEY BACKGROUND
The decision to allow aid from Egypt comes 11 days after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing more than 1,400 Israelis. In that time, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured as Israel declared war on Hamas shortly after the attack earlier this month. As part of its declaration of war, Israel cut off fuel, water and other utilities it supplied to Gaza, leaving civilians without resources as attacks continued. Biden arrived in Israel early Wednesday to meet with Netanyahu and other leaders, though his planned trip to Jordan to meet with Arab and Palestinian leaders was canceled Tuesday after a hospital explosion in Gaza that Palestinian authorities are blaming on Israel. Israel denies involvement in the attack and says the explosion was caused by a failed rocket launched by the Gaza-based militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Since his arrival in Israel, Biden said he’d seen evidence from the Pentagon indicating that the Israeli military did not cause the explosion, Bloomberg reported.
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TANGENT
Biden announced Wednesday he will ask Congress this week to approve an “unprecedented support package for Israel’s defense.” There were multiple reports Tuesday that Biden was eyeing a $100 billion request for defense aid for defense aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. An unnamed congressional source said Israel asked the U.S. for $10 billion, Reuters reported. Israel already receives $3.8 billion a year from the U.S.