President Joe Biden said the U.S. will begin air-dropping aid to Gaza, a day after more than 100 Palestinians were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops.
The president announced the move after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 injured, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, on Thursday when witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as huge crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy.
Biden said the air drops will begin soon and the United States was looking into additional ways to facilitate getting badly-needed aid into the war-torn territory to ease the suffering of Palestinians.
He said: “In the coming days we're going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies”.
He added the US will "seek to open up other avenues in, including possibly a marine corridor”.
Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a stampede linked to the chaos and its troops fired at people in the crowd they believed moved toward them in a threatening way.
Biden made the announcement while hosting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White house.
"Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough," Biden said. "Now, it's nowhere nearly enough. Innocent lives are on the line and children's lives are on the line. We won't stand by until we get more aid in there. We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several."
He also sought to assure European leaders that the U.S. remains behind Ukraine even as he's been unable to win passage of a supplemental foreign aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine in addition to $35 billion for Israel and Taiwan.
The legislation has passed the Senate, but Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to put it up for a vote in the House.Biden, along with top Democrats and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, strongly urged Johnson during a White House meeting this week to take up the foreign aid package, but Johnson responded by saying Congress "must take care of America's needs first."Biden said earlier this week he was optimistic a cease-fire deal could be reached by early next week.
But he acknowledged a prospective deal may have been set back after Israeli troops on Thursday fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off the aid convoy.With Meloni by his side, Biden on Friday expressed cautious optimism that a deal can still be struck."We've been working and hopefully we'll know shortly".
