US Is ‘Aggressively’ Seeking To Provide Gaza With Additional Humanitarian Aid: Antony Blinken

Washington is reportedly working “very aggressively” to increase the quantity of assistance that reaches Gazan people, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Following private discussions on how to lessen the humanitarian cost of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken made these remarks.

Antony Blinken said, “We are working, as I said, very aggressively on getting more humanitarian assistance into Gaza and we have very concrete ways of doing that,” referencing the HT story.

“I think we will see in the days ahead that the assistance can expand in significant ways,” he said, according to the article.

A “pause could help” guarantee that more aid reaches civilians, according to the senior US ambassador.

We are aware of the grave concern that exists here in Turkey over the horrific toll that has been inflicted on Gaza’s civilian population, he said. We are addressing this issue on a daily basis. We discuss with the Israelis the actions they may take to reduce the number of civilian deaths.

As he concluded an arduous Middle East diplomatic journey, Antony Blinken spoke about humanitarian supplies in Gaza, saying, “We have made good progress in recent days on expanding” the help coming into Gaza despite only patchy success in attempts to forge a regional agreement. He said, “Everything here is a work in progress,” before to departing Turkey. While there are clearly differences between our opinions on many of the pressing issues that we are collaborating on, there are also points of agreement.

We have discussed several actions the Israelis may take to reduce the number of civilian deaths. As I said before, we’re working really hard to increase the amount of humanitarian supplies that reaches Gaza. He said, “We are making every effort to bring the Americans and other hostages held by Hamas home. We are very focused on them.”

This comes as Israeli troops are expected to enter the Gaza city and are likely to face militants fighting street by street using a vast network of tunnels as casualties rose in the month-old war, which has already killed more than 9,700 Palestinians and more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.

Nevertheless, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been harshly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not meet with Antony Blinken.