U.S. Military To Make Relief Flights to Deliver Aid For Gaza

The United States military will start flying relief supplies for Gaza to the Middle East on Tuesday, marking a new phase in the international efforts to get humanitarian aid into the territory amid a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The first of three U.S. military planes carrying food, medical items, winter clothing and other aid is expected to land Tuesday in the North Sinai region of Egypt, with two additional planeloads of humanitarian aid arriving in the coming days, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The aid supplies will be trucked into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Crossing. Approximately 240 trucks loaded with relief supplies are now entering Gaza each day, and more than 2,000 truckloads of aid have been delivered to the coastal strip since Oct. 21, the White House said.

The increased aid is a shift from the first days of the war, when Israel put Gaza under siege and cut off food, water, electricity and fuel in response to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. But the senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details of the relief operation, said despite the uptick in aid Gaza is still not receiving enough assistance.

"What is getting in is nowhere near enough for normal life in Gaza and we will continue to push for additional steps," the official said.

According to Gaza officials more than 14,500 people in Gaza have been killed since the start of the war, including several thousand women and children. Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel in its Oct. 7 attack.

President Joe Biden pledged unequivocal support for Israel after it was attacked. But as the war has continued, the president and senior administration officials have put growing pressure on Israel to limit civilian casualties.

As the Palestinian death toll has risen, White House officials are increasingly focusing aid efforts in the central and southern portions of Gaza. Roughly 80 percent of Gaza's population of more than 2 million is now concentrated in central and southern Gaza, including thousands that fled the fighting in the north, which Israel had instructed civilians to leave.

Israel and Hamas on Monday agreed to extend their ceasefire by two days as part of a deal to free dozens of hostages that Hamas abducted when it attacked Israel.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will continue its push to destroy Hamas' military capacity once the ceasefire ends, and Israel is expected to expand its military push into the rest of the Gaza Strip.

The White House has warned Israel that it must limit civilian casualties if it expands the war to central and southern Gaza, the administration official said.

"You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north replicated in the south," the official said, adding that it would be "beyond destructive."

In anticipation of the war spreading south, the U.S., allies in the region and humanitarian aid groups are building up humanitarian aid zones in central and southern Gaza.

Several field hospitals have already been established in southern Gaza, the U.S. official said. The U.A.E., Jordan, Egypt and Turkey have helped in the effort by providing medical supplies, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other groups.