On Tuesday, the US pledged an additional $53 million in humanitarian help for the Palestinian people, while the US chief of aid begged for security for aid workers in Gaza, which is decimated by conflict.
While Israel and other Western nations condemn the UN refugee agency in besieged Gaza, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that the aid would pass through non-governmental organizations and the World Food Program.
Announcing the aid in a video from Jordan, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said the new assistance “has to reach people in need.”
“The aid workers who on the ground in Gaza are risking their lives to get food to people in desperate, desperate need — those aid workers have to be protected,” she said.
“They have to know they can do their jobs without being shot at and killed,” she said, without naming either Israel or Hamas, which controls Gaza.
With this aid, US emergency aid to the Palestinians has now totaled $180 million since Hamas launched a devastating offensive on Israel on October 7. Israel has responded with an unrelenting military operation in Gaza.
In the past, the US has sent military aircraft carrying aid to Egypt so that it might enter Gaza.
However, in reaction to Israeli accusations that some of its employees took part in the October 7 attack, the United States and other Western countries have stopped supporting UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Israel accused the UN personnel, and the UN sacked them and launched an internal investigation into UNRWA.
With UNRWA blocked from aid deliveries, the United Nations has warned of looming famine threatening virtually everyone in Gaza.
