The White House has criticized Israel in the past for the slow pace of humanitarian aid delivery, as well as for recent attacks by right-wing activists on aid trucks, but struggled Wednesday to criticize Egypt for blocking aid to Gaza.
Egypt has been blocking the passage of aid trucks into Gaza ever since Israel seized control of the Rafah Crossing, on the Egyptian-Gaza border, last week. Egypt opposes Israel’s operation in Gaza to defeat the last Hamas battalions.
On Wednesday, Jake Turx, the White House correspondent for the Orthodox Jewish magazine Ami, asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to react to Egypt’s actions. Jean-Pierre appeared to dodge the question.
“We’re going to continue to have those diplomatic conversations,” Jean-Pierre said, without adding any additional commentary on the need for Egypt to help move humanitarian aid through the border crossing and into Gaza.
Asked a follow-up question about how Egypt justified blocking humanitarian aid, Jean-Pierre said that she would not go into detail about diplomatic conversations, but could only reaffirm an American commitment to aid entering Gaza.
Egypt has refused to accept Palestinian refugees from the war, closing the border and fortifying a border wall to prevent Palestinians from entering Egypt as a result of the conflict launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
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