U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday laid out the Trump administration's plan to surge humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and distribute it to civilians in the Strip. "The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food or even bringing the food into Gaza," Huckabee told a press conference.
The ambassador said the process to deliver aid to Gaza has been launched and food would be delivered safely to the people who desperately need it, but it will be done so that Hamas cannot get control of it. He said Hamas had stolen aid from the Gazan population to sell it on the black market and use the earnings to buy weapons and murder more people.
Huckabee repeated a number of times during his discussion with reporters that Hamas was responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, beginning on Oct. 8, 2023, and since. He said Israel supported the American plan to provide aid to the Strip but was not part of the effort, other than in providing security on the perimeters.
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Asked whether the supply of aid was dependent on a ceasefire being agreed between Israel and Hamas, Huckabee said: "The humanitarian aid will not depend on anything other than our ability to get the food into Gaza."
He rejects the notion that Washington was “pulling away” from its close relations with Israel or trying to sidestep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, after U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to stop attacks on the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran and lately a reported agreement with Saudi Arabia to develope a civilian nuclear plan, without normalizing relations with Israel. “Under Trump, the special relationship has never been stronger,” he said.
Also on Friday, American officials said U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would not be visiting Israel next week as was previously planned and would be accompanying Trump on his visit to Saudi Arabia.