The US will begin air dropping food aid to the people of Gaza, President Joe Biden announced on Friday, as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land crossings to allow more assistance into the war-torn strip.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional aid into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” the US President said, noting “hundreds of trucks” should be entering the enclave.
Biden said the US is “going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses”.
He also noted the efforts to broker a deal to free the hostages and secure an “immediate ceasefire” that would allow additional aid in.
Has Israel received any military aid since December? Last I heard they were facing a pause in weapon transfers from the US until they could confirm the weapons were being used in accordance with international law.
There was a sale that Biden bypassed Congress on Dec 29th or 30th. It still takes time to deliver so probably they still received stuff in February but definitely January so within the last month or so for sure.
That was noted as it was above the billions in military aide given annually that are already budgeted. We can still give them that close to 4 billion in aide without announcing as it is already in the budget so yes, we are probably still in February and March giving them aide as it is in our budget (I don’t like it, but say our as I am a US citizens).
I saw the EO that would set the stage for that action but I didn’t think it was put into effect yet.
Did the recent combined Ukraine/Israel aid bill flounder?
So far it’s passed the Senate, but is being refused a vote in the house. Republicans are attempting to pass an Israel only bill, but Biden has vowed to veto it.