“For humanitarian aid in Gaza, Biden did not want to wait for Israel,” senior White House officials reported in a briefing with a small group of journalists. The president «wanted to consider all options without waiting for Israel. So the aid will arrive by air, by sea and by land”the sources pointed out.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, will then announce new measures to create a port in Gaza for humanitarian aid during his State of the Union address tonight. Senior US administration officials told CNN.
«In his speech tonight, the President will announce that he will instruct the U.S. Army to conduct an emergency mission to create a port in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Gaza, which can accommodate large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter,” an administration official said. The port will include a temporary pier, a second senior official said, which will “provide capacity to accommodate hundreds of additional assistance trucks every day” to be coordinated with Israel, the United Nations and non-governmental humanitarian organizations. The first aid shipments will arrive via Cyprus, the official said. It is unclear when the port will be operational: «It will take several weeks to plan and execute this significant new capacity. The forces needed to complete this mission are already in the region or will begin moving there soon,” a second official said.
Meanwhile, Israel rejects international pressure to avoid extending the war to Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. «Our army – said the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a military ceremony – will continue to fight against all Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas. Anyone who tells us not to act there is asking us to lose the war. This will not happen.” Netanyahu reiterated that Israel's objectives are the “elimination of the wicked Hamas regime, the recovery of the hostages and the removal of new threats to Israel from Gaza.”