US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for Israel to do more to get relief to the Gaza Strip, including holding extended pauses of fighting, after the United States defied humanitarian groups to conclude Israel was not blocking aid.
After a 30-day US deadline for Israel to take steps to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza expired on Tuesday, the State Department concluded that Israel was not blocking aid and therefore not violating US law.
Eight international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the US demands to improve access for assistance, while food security experts have said it is likely that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza.
Blinken, speaking to reporters in Brussels, said on Wednesday that Israel had taken some steps to improve aid but they needed to be sustained to take effect.
Addressing areas where Israel had yet to meet US demands, Blinken said Israel should rescind evacuation orders to allow those displaced by its operations to return home, and resume commercial trucking deliveries into Gaza.
"In my judgement maybe most significant, we need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza ... so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it," he said.
US President Joe Biden, whose term ends in January and who will be replaced by his predecessor Donald Trump, has backed Israel since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Since then, more than 43,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, with 2 million displaced people and much of the enclave reduced to rubble.
Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's goal of destroying Hamas.
He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Blinken said Israel "has accomplished the goals that it set for itself" by taking out Hamas' leadership and ensuring the group is unable to launch another massive attack.
"This should be a time to end the war," he said.
Hamas was not engaging in talks to bring an end to the war but a plan would still be needed for the future of the Gaza Strip, something Blinken has spent months discussing with regional leaders.
"We also need to make sure we have a plan for what follows," he said "so that if Israel decides to end the war and we find a way to get the hostages out, we also have a clear plan so that Israel can get out of Gaza and we make sure that Hamas is not going back in."
