US warns Israel to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk losing weapons funding

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday that a similar letter Blinken sent to Israeli officials in April led to more humanitarian assistance getting to the Palestinian territory. But that has not lasted. Miller says the two leaders wanted to make clear to Israel that it needs to make changes again to bring assistance back up from “very, very low levels.”