US calls for "pauses" in Israel's Gaza genocide as aid deadlines passes with no effect
Brussels, Belgium - Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Israel to implement "real and extended pauses" in its destruction of Gaza to allow for aid deliveries, as a US-imposed deadline to improve conditions in the territory expired with no consequences.
Blinken claimed without giving any details that Israel had taken multiple steps to address the humanitarian catastrophe it has caused, but added that more was needed.
"We need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it," Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels.
People in Gaza are facing horrific conditions imposed by Israel in a year-long assault that experts, aid organizations, and human rights groups say has crossed the threshold into genocide.
Last month, Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel setting a November 13 deadline to comply with US law on permitting humanitarian assistance, or risk a cut to the military aid that has made Israel's mass killing possible.
"The intent was to inject a sense of urgency with Israel to take necessary steps to address the dire humanitarian situation," Blinken said on Wednesday.
He then claimed Israel has moved to implement 12 of the 15 steps the US urged action on, but "three big issues" still needed to be addressed.
Ensuring extended pauses in fighting was one of them. The other two were allowing commercial trucks into the Palestinian territory and rescinding evacuation orders so that people could return to an area after Israel completed its assaults there.
"Short of ending the war, which we believe now is the time to move to that, we have to see these humanitarian steps fully implemented," Blinken said.
Israel continues mass killing and displacement
Despite Blinken statements, many of the other steps outlined in the original letter have also been ignored or implemented only partially. Most urgently, Israel has done anything but "[reaffirm] that there will be no policy of forced evacuations of civilians from northern to southern Gaza."
Instead, northern areas of the strip have been subjected to a weeks-long siege, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with a choice between imminent death and forced displacement to other unsafe locations.
Israel has attacked hospitals, schools, mosques, homes and refugee shelters in a concerted campaign to empty out northern Gaza dubbed "the generals' plan."
The outgoing Biden administration has made it clear that it will not limit military aid to Israel or impose consequences for its war crimes under any circumstances. On the contrary, it denies that Israel is in violation of international law.
Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS