US Calls On Israel To Ensure Delivery Of Assistance To Gaza -- Blinken

10/31/2024 9:08:38 PM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (KUNA) -- Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Thursday the United States was "tracking very carefully Israel's responsibilities to meet the letter of the law as we sent it jointly to our Israeli counterparts with regard to the provision of humanitarian assistance."
"There's been real progress, but insufficient. And we're working on a daily basis to make sure that Israel does what it must do to ensure that this assistance gets to people who need it inside of Gaza," he said.
"It's not enough to get trucks to Gaza. It's vital that what they bring with them can get distributed effectively inside of Gaza.
"And one other thing on this very quickly. One of the things that has been successful in recent months was the polio vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza," he pointed out.
Blinken made the comments at a joint press conference with US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, South Korea's Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Tae-Yul and Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun at the State Dept. in Washington.
"But in order for that campaign to be concluded, we have to complete a second round of vaccinations, and these vaccinations have to happen within a certain period of time from the first round of vaccinations.
"It is urgent that this be completed in the days ahead, and we're looking to Israel to facilitate that -- that action.
"And then finally, sorry for going on so long, for many months, Israel has made clear that the strategic objectives that it had in Gaza, in making sure that October 7th and the horrors of October 7th could never happen again, were the effective dismantlement of Hamas's military capacity, its organized military capacity, and the elimination of the leaders who were responsible for October 7th.
"So, both of those goals have been achieved, and the focus now must be on ending the war and, in the meanwhile, making sure that people who need the assistance for food, for medicine and other basic humanitarian needs get the assistance that they need," he added.
On his part, Austin said he talked to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this afternoon to "emphasize the need to protect civilians in the battle space and the need to provide humanitarian assistance to -- the people in Gaza."
"And as Tony (Blinken) pointed out, they have made some progress recently. We want to see them do much more, and we'll continue to emphasize that as we engage in the future," he added. (pickup previous)
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