U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday it was a moral and strategic imperative to protect Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas and that the humanitarian catastrophe in besieged Gaza was getting worse.
\nAustin was speaking during a meeting with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon as relations between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low.
\n\u201cIn Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,\u201d Austin said, sitting across from Gallant, a key architect of the military campaign against Hamas in response to the militants\u2019 Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that Israel says killed 1,200 people.
\n\u201cGaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse,\u201d Austin said, using some of his most forceful language so far.
\nThe Pentagon later said Austin\u2019s discussion with Gallant was frank and direct.
\nThe Israeli defense minister also met for a second day with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who told Gallant that Israel needs to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
\nGallant later held talks with CIA Director William Burns, recently returned from talks in Qatar seeking an elusive deal for Hamas\u2019 release of more than 130 hostages still held in Gaza.
\nSpeaking to reporters, Gallant, apparently seeking to cool U.S.-Israeli tensions, said he stressed the importance of U.S. ties to his country\u2019s security and of maintaining Israel\u2019s qualitative military edge in the region, including its air capabilities.
\n\u201cWe share 100% of the values and 99% of the interests with the United States,\u201d Gallant said.
\nBiden has come under pressure from human right groups and some fellow Democrats to condition further military aid on Netanyahu holding off on a threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering. The U.S. president has resisted doing so.
\nFEARS OF FAMINE
\nIsrael has launched strikes and shelling in Gaza that have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
\n\u201cWe need immediate increases in assistance to avert famine,\u201d Austin said.
\nA senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said more aid was now flowing through land crossings and that about 200 trucks were crossing into Gaza daily.
\nGallant\u2019s meeting with Austin took place after Netanyahu on Monday canceled a separate visit to Washington by two senior aides due to hear U.S. ideas about operational alternatives in Rafah.
\nNetanyahu\u2019s fraught relations with Biden became even more strained over Washington\u2019s decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The United States has been working to get Netanyahu to consider other options instead of a ground invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians.
\nAustin said he was ready to discuss alternate approaches to targeting Hamas militants there.
\nThe senior defense official said Austin discussed potential steps like Israel\u2019s precision targeting of Hamas fighters in the southern city on Gaza\u2019s border with Egypt.
\nThe threat of such an offensive has increased differences between close allies the United States and Israel, and raised questions about whether the U.S. might restrict military aid if Netanyahu defies Biden and presses ahead anyway.
\nGallant emphasized that while he had discussed humanitarian aid, he had also made clear Israel\u2019s plan to go ahead with efforts to destroy Hamas, saying it was necessary to deter \u201ccommon enemies,\u201d an apparent reference to Iran. Hamas, he said, still has five battalions operating in Rafah.
\nAustin said the security bond between Israel and the United States was \u201cunshakeable\u201d. \u201cThe United States is Israel\u2019s closest friend and that won\u2019t change,\u201d he added.
\n(Reuters)humanitarian catastrophe. protecting Palestinian civilians, humanitarian catastrophe, U.S.-Israeli tensions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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