Washington pledges “steadfast” support for Israel and announces the continuation of sending aid to Gaza

The White House pledged steadfast support for Israel, during the visit of its Defense Minister Yoav Galant to Washington. Meanwhile, he announced that he would continue airdropping aid into the Gaza Strip, despite Hamas’ demands to stop it.

The White House announced the continuation of "steadfast" American support for Israel, while deciding to continue airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip despite Hamas' calls to stop it.

The White House said that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held talks on Tuesday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for the second day in a row.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing to reporters aboard Air Force One that Sullivan pledged "steadfast American support for Israel," adding that the two officials discussed the need for Israel to "do more to maintain and increase humanitarian aid directed to Gaza."

Jean-Pierre stressed that "it is important that Israel do everything in its power to prevent civilian casualties, carry out operations in a strategic manner as accurate as possible, and carry out operations to protect civilians in Rafah."

Earlier Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during his meeting with Gallant that the toll of civilian casualties in Gaza is “very high,” and “the amount of humanitarian aid is very low.”

"abusive manner"

In Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Strip announced on Tuesday that 12 Palestinians drowned while trying to retrieve aid dropped by American and Jordanian planes that fell into the sea.

Six others were also killed as a result of the stampede while trying to collect aid dropped by parachute in other places.

Hamas called for an end to the operations of dropping this aid on the besieged Gaza Strip, which was pushed by the devastating war to the brink of famine.

The movement’s media office said in a statement: “We call for an end to the operations of delivering aid in this offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless manner, and we demand that the land crossings be opened immediately and quickly to bring humanitarian aid into our Palestinian people who are suffering from hunger and acute food shortages for the sixth month in a row.”

However, the White House announced in return that “parachute aid operations are one of the many methods we use to provide the assistance that the Palestinians of Gaza urgently need, and we will continue to do so.”

For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Tuesday, during a visit to Israel, to significantly expand the scope of food delivery to the Gaza Strip, by reducing the procedures for crossing trucks loaded with food.

The ongoing Israeli war, with American support, since October 7, 2023, has left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, and a famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly, which led to Israel being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide.”