Blinken calls for end to Gaza war as US 'lets Israel off the hook' over aid

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel should end its war on Gaza after the US had said that Israel was complying with US law regarding aid to the devastated territory.

“Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the goals that it set for itself,” Blinken told reporters while visiting the Belgian capital. “This should be a time to end the war.”

His comments came after the US said on Tuesday that Israel was not in violation of US laws on the level of aid entering Gaza, just before a 30-day deadline set by Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin expired.

The deadline required Israel to comply with US laws regarding humanitarian assistance in its war on Gaza or face a cut to military assistance.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that “the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be unsatisfactory” but claimed that Israel was taking “steps in the right direction”.

Just before the end of the deadline, the Israeli military said that it was opening the Kissufim crossing with Gaza, saying that this was to increase the volume of aid to Gaza.

However, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA pointed out that Israel had only allowed one aid mission into northern Gaza, which has been under intensified Israeli siege and ferocious bombardment over the past month, with Israel suspected of implementing a “General’s Plan” there designed to kill, starve, or expel the remaining inhabitants.

Israel then bombed the school where the aid was to be distributed, forcing the people who it was intended for to flee.

On Wednesday at least nine people were killed in the Israeli bombing of two sites in Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, five of them near the entrance of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which Israel has been bombing relentlessly for weeks.

Aid at its 'worst point'

The US assessment was criticised by aid groups and condemned by Hamas, which accused it of complicity in Israel’s “war of genocide” in Gaza.

The Palestinian group said that the US statement was "a confirmation of the full partnership of President [Joe] Biden's administration in the brutal war of genocide against our people".

Nine aid agencies including the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, as well as Oxfam and Save the Children, pointed out that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023".

Joyce Msuya, the interim head of OCHA told a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday that Israelis were committing "daily cruelty" in Gaza, describing "acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes".

"What distinction was made, and what precautions were taken, if more than 70 percent of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed?" she added.

On Tuesday, South Africa said that it had provided evidence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, with the aim of depopulating Gaza, as part of its ongoing case accusing Israel of genocide.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said that the evidence “demonstrates unequivocally that Israel's genocidal acts are of special intent to commit genocide in the Gaza strip," adding that South Africa’s approach to the case was based on its own experience with colonialism and apartheid.

On Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 43,712 people had been killed and 103,528 had been injured ever since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

At least 47 of them were killed and 182 wounded in the past 24 hours.