JERUSALEM, Apr 5: Israel announced on Friday that it would allow "temporary" aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over Israels war against Hamas militants.
In a tense, 30-minute phone call on Thursday, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that United States policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the first hint of possible conditions to Washingtons military support.
Just hours later, in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, Israel announced it would open more aid routes into the coastal Palestinian territory which Israel placed under siege at the start of the war nearly six months ago.
"Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid" through the Ashdod Port and the Erez land crossing, as well as increased deliveries from neighbouring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Netanyahus office said.
The White House quickly welcomed the moves-saying they came "at the presidents request"-and said they "must now be fully and rapidly implemented".
Israel has come under mounting international pressure over the toll inflicted by its six-month war on Hamas, and drawn increasingly tough rebuke from its main backer Washington.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began with Hamass October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the army says are dead.
Israels retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, while the United Nations has warned of "catastrophic" hunger.
Palestinians in northern Gaza have eaten an average of just 245 calories per day-less than a can of beans-since January, according to the charity Oxfam.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel had defended its efforts and blamed shortages on groups inability to distribute aid once it gets in to Gaza.
The dangerous work of trying to stem a famine was underscored this week by an Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers distributing food in Gaza.
"The strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable," Biden told Netanyahu, according to a White House summary of their call. —AFP
