U.S. says Gaza aid tragedy raises urgency for ceasefire deal
White House expresses frustration that Israel has failed to provide a plan for basic security in areas of Gaza where its operations against Hamas have finished.
The United States said that a tragic series of events that led to the deaths of over 100 Gazans and wounding of over 700 as desperate Palestinians swarmed aid trucks entering ravaged northern Gaza early today raises the urgency of reaching a hostage release/temporary ceasefire deal as soon as possible.
“This terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told journalists at the department briefing today (Feb. 29).
“If there’s anything that the aerial footage of today’s incident makes clear, it is just how desperate the situation on the ground is,” Miller said. “People need more food. They need more water….and they need it now.”
“The best way to alleviate the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people is to reach an agreement for a temporary ceasefire that would get hostages out, enable more aid to come in and allow that aid to move everywhere inside Gaza,” he said.
Israeli and Palestinian sources offered different accounts of what happened. The BBC reported that a convoy of aid trucks was crossing through an Israeli military checkpoint into northern Gaza at about 4am local time, and was swarmed by hundreds of desperate Palestinians. Israeli forces, feeling threatened, opened fire from a tank on some of the crowd to try to deter them. Meantime, some of the trucks reportedly ran over people as they tried to escape the crowd or the gunfire in a panic.
The Israeli Defense Forces acknowledged opening fire at some point, but attributed the high death toll to people being trampled and run over in the chaotic stampede.
“This morning, humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza, residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered,” the IDF wrote on its English-language Twitter account. “As a result of the pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks, dozens of Gazans were killed and injured.”
Some reports citing witnesses in Gaza said the Israeli forces opening fire had caused more of the bloodshed.
The United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was “appalled at the reported killing and injuring of hundreds of people during a transfer of aid supplies west of Gaza City today.”
He noted that the tragedy occurred as the death toll officially recorded by Gaza’s health ministry across the territory since Oct. 7 reached 30,000, though that number reportedly may not include those buried under rubble and still unrecovered or unidentified. Israel launched military operations to destroy Hamas after Hamas launched a massacre in kibbutzim and at a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 people hostage.
White House: We urged Israel of need for basic security plan for Gaza, yet to see
The White House said it has requested that Israel thoroughly investigate what happened, and expressed open frustration that Israel had not fulfilled its repeated urging to come up with a plan for basic security for areas of Gaza after Israeli military operations have dislodged Hamas. It also expressed growing frustration at Israeli conditions that have severely restricted the amount of aid entering Gaza and particularly northern Gaza that has led to this degree of desperation.
“We’ve been in touch with the Government of Israel this morning…to request that they investigate and provide more information about the circumstances that led to this tragedy,” White House principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters traveling with President Biden on Air Force One today to Texas. “We also think that this event underscores the need for expanded humanitarian aid to makes its way into Gaza.”
“Beyond that, we have consistently and vocally communicated to our Israeli counterparts the need for there to be viable plans to maintain basic security in areas of Gaza where their military operations against Hamas have concluded,” Dalton said. “And we have yet to see those be implemented. And we are deeply concerned about that.”
President Biden, meantime, spoke separately with both Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today, to press for progress on ceasefire/hostage release talks, currently underway in Doha.
“The leaders underscored that the release of hostages would result in an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” a White House readout of President Biden’s call with Egypt’s al-Sisi said. “They exchanged views on how such a prolonged period of calm could then be built into something more enduring.
“They also discussed the tragic and alarming incident earlier today in northern Gaza,” it continued. “Both leaders grieved the loss of civilian lives and agreed that this incident underscored the urgency of bringing negotiations to a close as soon as possible and expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Qatar PM in DC Tuesday
A key mediator in the four-way talks between the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar to reach an Israeli-Hamas hostage release/ceasefire deal, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, also spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken this morning. Al Thani is due to lead the Qatari delegation to talks in Washington starting Tuesday next week that include the Qatari-US strategic dialogue, but which are certain to focus as well on efforts to close an Israel/Hamas ceasefire/hostage release deal.
There were signs that some of the parties were particularly hoping to reach a six week pause/hostage release deal by the time the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on March 10, if at all possible.
‘Difficult, but inching forward,’ a source familiar with the talks, speaking not for attribution, described them last night.
President Biden, before departing for Texas this morning, said he is still hoping for a deal, but after his latest consultations with regional leaders, did not expect one by Monday.
“Hope springs eternal,” Biden said. “I was on the telephone with the people in the region. …Probably not by Monday. But I’m hopeful.”
US patience running out, Israeli opinion split
Israeli domestic public opinion appears divided on a deal, with much of the public supporting a deal to gain the releases of the over 100 hostages still held by Hamas, but far right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition hostile to any pause in the fighting, said Daniel Byman, a Middle East expert with the Center for Security and International Studies and professor at Georgetown University.
“I think Israeli opinion is genuinely split on this question,” Byman said. “I think there’s pressure growing on the Israeli government to do some sort of a deal with the hostages. But the coalition dynamics are pushing the other direction. So there's kind of broader political dynamics versus immediate coalition dynamics.”
As the Biden administration seems more intent on getting a new hostage release/pause deal as soon as next week, how much leverage can it bring to bear on the Israeli government to take a deal?
“You know, it's hard,” Byman said, noting that even when the US had 100,000 forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and would press those governments, there were still a lot of problems getting them to comply.
“This is both seen by Israelis as an existential issue and…it's also politically exceptionally sensitive,” Byman said. “So you're going to have a lot of very strong Israeli views that are going to be difficult to bend.”
“But the Biden administration…is increasing its rhetorical criticism, it has allowed some stuff [to go] through at the UN,” Byman said. “Clearly, it’s trying to signal that U.S. patience is declining… But how much that goes from a wag of the finger to a severe wag of the finger is unclear. How much influence do these limited measures have is not always clear.”
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