Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday night that Israel “must do more” to get humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, citing a U.N. World Food Programme report that said no food aid has entered the northern part of the strip in nearly two weeks.
“The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” she posted on X. “Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water, and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected.”
The WFP report said almost all food distribution points in the northern part of Gaza have been shut down due to airstrikes and ground operations in the area. Israel’s military has repeatedly ordered the evacuation of the northern part of the strip, most recently over this past weekend.
Israel has been at war with Hamas in the area after the terrorist group’s attack on the Jewish nation just over a year ago. Israel also killed a top official of another terrorist group in the strip, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike on Oct. 10.
The report added that the WFP “has been able to bring in only four percent of the food needed to sustain a million people in Gaza this month,” and that “aid entering Gaza overall is at its lowest level in months.”
Harris’s statement comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to cut all humanitarian aid off from northern Gaza in an effort to starve out Hamas terrorists. The plan would give Palestinians a week to leave northern Gaza before declaring it a closed military zone and cutting off aid. The Palestinians who choose not to abide by the order, terrorists or civilians, would be considered combatants.
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Officials said they believe roughly 300,000 Palestinians remain in northern Gaza despite the previous evacuation orders.
The Biden administration has said it would not support any reduction in the size of Gaza.