By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The US on Thursday said Israel needs to “urgently” do more to provide sustained and unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance to enter the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
“We are working tirelessly to surge assistance to all available means to address the impact of this crisis. That's why the US established a humanitarian maritime corridor to augment, not replace, ongoing efforts to scale the delivery of humanitarian aid,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
Patel said, however, that more needs to be done to address the scale of needs of humanitarian aid, adding that “humanitarian conditions on the ground continue to deteriorate and vital border crossings have closed at a time when moving more aid is critical.”
“We have and will continue to press Israel and other partners in the region … to ensure the safety of humanitarian actors and activities, open additional land crossings and remove impediments to the delivery of humanitarian aid and do more to make sure that aid can get to the places that it needs to go,” he said.
Patel added that the US continues to be “concerned” that travel, the flow of fuel and aid into Gaza by the Rafah border crossing has come to a ”complete halt.”
“But we are continuing to work with the government of Egypt with the government of Israel to do everything we can to make sure that this gets opened as soon as possible,” he said, adding that there are “legitimate security and operational concerns” that they continue to work through.
A total of 228 aid trucks crossed into Gaza on May 15, including 136 from Jordan and Israel through the Kerem Shalom border crossing and 92 through the Enez crossing, according to Patel.