US calls on Israel to halt Gaza fighting temporarily as aid deadline passes

US top diplomat Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Israel to implement “real and extended pauses” in fighting in Gaza to allow for aid deliveries, as a US-imposed deadline to improve conditions in the territory expired.

Blinken said Israel had taken multiple steps to address the humanitarian crisis ahead of the deadline set by outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration – but 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.

Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since Israel launched a sweeping assault on the territory following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.

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 military aid.

“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.

Israel has since moved to implement 12 of the 15 steps the US urged action on, but “three big issues” still needed to be addressed.

Enacting extended pauses in fighting was one.

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 operations there, he said.

“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’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 43,665 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.