By Simon Lewis, Tassilo Hummel
LEUVEN, Belgium (Reuters) -The United States welcomes Israel’s latest efforts to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, but said success would be measured in results in improving the situation on the ground.
“Really the proof is in the results, and we will see those unfold in the coming days, in the coming weeks,” Blinken said, speaking alongside EU leaders in Belgium.
President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians.
The move, prompted by an Israeli attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, is the first time the Biden administration has sought to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behaviour.
Israel said it would open the Erez crossing point, which has been closed since it was destroyed during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that started the war, and increase aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Israel also needed to reverse what it called a ban on the agency reaching northern Gaza with food supplies.
“The clock is ticking fast towards famine and UNRWA must be allowed to do its work, and reach the north on a regular basis with food and nutrition supplies,” UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said.
Asked on Israel’s action after Biden’s shift in position, Blinken told journalists Washington will be “closely looking” at specific metrics such as the number of trucks making their way into the Gaza strip, the distribution of supplies inside the enclave, especially in the north that has been largely cut off from aid since the war began.
Blinken said the United States was particularly concerned by “indicators of potential famine”.
“We’ll be looking closely at those to see that they’re reversed,” he said.
Repeating a U.S. call for Israel to investigate the strike on the aid workers, Blinken said Washington wanted to see accountability for the attack.
Israel has said the strike was unintentional.
Blinken said a “horrific number” of innocent civilians had been killed in the war, and Israel needed to make sure the population is protected from its strikes by “maximising every effort to protect civilians.”
“We just can’t have so many people caught in the crossfire killed injured going forward,” he added.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Tassilo HummelEditing by Peter Graff and Sharon Singleton)
