The White House has asked Congress for about $106 billion for ambitious border security plans for Ukraine, Israel and the U.S., but has offered no strategy to secure the money from a divided Congress, reports RTE.
US President Joe Biden asked for the funds days after he visited Israel and declared solidarity with the country bombing Gaza after Hamas militants killed 1,400 people in southern Israel.
With Ukraine funding Israel, border security, refugee aid, counter-China measures and other hotly contested priorities, Mr. Biden hopes to pass a national security spending bill that will find support in the chaotic House of Representatives.
The House, which Republicans took control of last year, has been without a leader for over two weeks.
Some Republican politicians have become sceptical about the need to finance Ukraine’s war with Russia and have threatened a complete government shutdown to end debt-fueled fiscal spending.
“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” said Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to acting House speaker Patrick McHenry, reports RTE.
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David Satterfield, the newly appointed U.S. special humanitarian envoy for the Middle East, is still negotiating with Israeli and Egyptian officials on what he called “the exact modalities” for the agreement.
More than 100 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid are already at Egypt’s Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip, but only 20 will be allowed initially to ensure the aid goes to humanitarian agencies and not managed by the Hamas militant group.
Medicines, water purifiers and blankets are being unloaded at El Arish airport near Gaza, as an AFP reporter saw Ahmed Ali, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, say he was receiving “two to three planes of aid a day”, reports RTE.
In Geneva, WHO’s emergencies director called US President Joe Biden’s agreement to authorize the delivery of 20 trucks “a drop in the ocean of need”.
“It should be 2,000 trucks,” Michael Ryan said, reports RTE.
According to UN estimates, there are approximately 1 million displaced people in Gaza
Citing data from Gaza’s Ministry of Housing, it said that since hostilities began, 12,845 have been destroyed, 9,055 were deemed uninhabitable and 121,000 were moderately or slightly damaged.
UN OCHA’s update shows that 307 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,785.
The UN report described the Israeli blockade as a “complete siege” and says “desperately needed humanitarian aid” is urgently required, reports RTE.
It warns that people are increasingly consuming water from unsafe sources, risking death and exposing the population to the risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases.
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