The White House on Wednesday warned that criminal gangs are preventing trucks of humanitarian aid from getting to civilians in Gaza as the U.S. continues to push for a hostage release and cease-fire proposal outlined by President Joe Biden last month.
Although trucks of assistance are queued up outside of the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and southern Gaza after it was closed for days last month, many are not getting in due to the threat of gangs looting the vehicles and concern from those driving, National Security Council Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on a call on Wednesday.
“You can't very well blame these guys for being a little bit nervous about driving a truck into Gaza when their convoys and their trucks could be attacked by these criminal gangs and thugs,” he said.
Kirby added the U.S. is working with the U.N. to get drivers personal protective gear and equipment as well as radio communications to address safety concerns.
“We’re going to obviously work with them and the [Israeli Defense Force] to see what can be done about that but yes, security of these convoys is a live issue,” he said.
He noted that while Hamas has “allowed some of this activity to go on,” the U.S. does not know of any specific connection between these gangs and Hamas.
Kirby said the best way to address the issue was to get the hostage release and cease-fire deal laid out by Biden last month in place, stressing that the U.S. is still focused on making that happen. He noted that the first stage of the multi-phase plan, which aims to ultimately bring an end to the fighting, calls for 600 trucks of humanitarian aid making its way into Gaza each day.
Little progress has appeared to have been made, at least publically, since Hamas responded to the proposal. And despite the insistence from the U.S. that the proposal was back by Israel, its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu created some fresh questions on his government’s stance on it over the weekend.
It comes at a moment in which public tensions between Israel and the U.S. have been on full display after Netanyahu accused the Biden administration of holding back on supplying his country with weapons in recent months. Kirby on Wednesday echoed comments from other administration officials in recent weeks, saying military assistance “continues to flow” to Israel and that the only thing that has been interrupted is one shipment of bombs.
Biden last month paused one shipment of bombs over concerns about how Israel could use them in Rafah – a southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinian civilians were taking shelter.
Kirby stressed that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to Washington this week shows that the U.S. is in “constant touch” with its long-time Middle East ally about what they need.
Gallant met with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Wednesday after sitting down with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
A readout of Sullivan’s meeting with Gallant from the White House notes that the Israeli defense minister “confirmed the support of the Israeli government” for the cease-fire proposal Biden laid out.
The pair also discussed Israel’s escalating tensions with Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.