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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Israel must make the welfare of Palestinian civilians "job number one" in its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
"We look to the government of Israel to make sure this is a priority - protecting civilians, getting people the assistance they need," he told reporters after a virtual meeting with international counterparts.
"That has to be job number one, even as they do what is necessary to defend the country and to deal with the threat posed by Hamas."
The top U.S. diplomat met via videoconference with ministers from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the European Union and the United Nations to discuss a new maritime corridor for aid into Gaza.
"When established, this corridor will enable the distribution of up to 2 million meals every single day, as well as medicine, water and other critical humanitarian supplies," Blinken said.
The U.S. military has dispatched a ship to the Mediterranean to build a temporary pier on the Gaza shoreline to provide passage for more aid but says the dock may take two months to complete.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said at least one of its staff members was killed and another 22 were injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution center in the eastern part of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Blinken said this incident showed the imperative of having much better and consistent deconfliction with humanitarian workers.
Ciaran Donnelly, vice president of crisis response for the International Rescue Committee, told reporters in a briefing that the recent use of airdrops to deliver food "is unsafe, highly expensive, ineffective and undignified for the people who have to scramble to receive it on the ground."
"It is very much a last resort for aid agencies in crises around the world and should not be the first option for agencies in Gaza," he said.
Relief efforts
A Spanish charity ship carrying more than 200 metric tons of humanitarian food aid set sail from Cyprus to Gaza on Tuesday, the latest effort to feed tens of thousands of Palestinians who the United Nations has said are starving.
The food, gathered by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, was on a barge being towed by a ship belonging to the Spanish aid group Open Arms and headed to an undisclosed location on the Gaza coast. The 400-kilometer voyage was expected to take two to three days.
A second vessel was being loaded in Cyprus to soon make the same trip, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told state radio. Speaking later in Beirut, Kombos said, "We are working towards the safe arrival of the first shipment and then the safe distribution."
"If all goes according to plan ... we have already put in place the mechanism for a second and much bigger cargo, and then we'll be working toward making this a more systematic exercise with increased volumes," he said.
Israeli strikes
Israel said Wednesday that it killed a Hamas militant in an airstrike on a U.N. food distribution center in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Palestinian officials said the Israeli strike killed at least four other people, one of them a U.N. worker.
"Today's attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine," said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
Hamas said in a statement that Muhammad Abu Hasna, a police officer in charge of security at the UNRWA center, was killed in the strike.
Israel's military identified Abu Hasna as a "Hamas terrorist" who led an "intelligence operations room" for the militant group and "was also involved in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas terrorists."
An Israeli drone strike on Wednesday in southern Lebanon killed two people, including a member of the Hamas militant group.
The strike hit a car outside the city of Tyre, near the Mediterranean coast. Lebanese state media identified the Hamas members as being from the Rashidieh refugee camp, an area where the militant group has a notable presence.
Israel's military also reported Wednesday carrying out airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis and ground operations in central Gaza as it pursues Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported on Wednesday that 88 more Palestinians had been killed in Israel's offensive during the past day. Since the war began in early October, the total number of Palestinians killed is at least 31,272, with another 73,000 injured, according to the ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
No cease-fire
Blinken said the United States was intensely engaged with regional countries "every single day, almost every single hour" to try to achieve a cease-fire and get the remaining hostages out.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt had hoped to broker a cease-fire before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began Monday that would have included the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and a greater flow of aid into Gaza. The talks stalled last week.
The United States is encouraging Israel to "stay engaged," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a news briefing Tuesday. "We believe that there still is scope for this deal to get done, notwithstanding the fact that we have entered the Ramadan period."
Sullivan declined to confirm reports that the administration is considering placing conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel should it continue with plans to invade Rafah without adequate plans to protect civilians. More than 1 million Palestinians are seeking safety there, in Gaza's southernmost area close to the Egyptian border.
"I'm not going to comment on hypotheticals," he said, reiterating the administration's talking points that the U.S. does not support a military operation in Rafah that "cuts off the main arteries of humanitarian assistance, and then places enormous pressure on the Israel-Egypt border."
State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching and White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some material came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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