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Blinken Criticizes Countries for Lack of Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on, as U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) speaks about the conflict in Israel, after Hamas launched its biggest attack in decades, while making a statement about the crisis, at the White House in Washington, U.S. October 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
i24 News – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has criticized countries that have expressed concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza but have not backed up their rhetoric with aid.
Speaking at a fundraising conference in Jordan, Blinken highlighted the urgent need for increased assistance, noting that only one-third of the current United Nations appeal for Gaza is funded, leaving a shortfall of approximately $2.3 billion.
“Every country can help fill this gap,” Blinken said. “Yet some who’ve expressed great concern over the suffering of Palestinian people in Gaza, including countries with the capacity to give a lot, have provided very little or nothing at all. It is time for everyone – everyone – to step up.”
Blinken acknowledged countries that have already contributed generously but urged them to give more. He noted that the U.S. had recently announced an additional $404 million in new aid to Palestinians, bringing the total US assistance to more than $674 million over the past eight months.
The Secretary of State also detailed steps that Washington has pressed Israel to take to alleviate humanitarian conditions in Gaza. These include speeding up the inspection of aid trucks, clarifying and shortening the list of prohibited goods, increasing visas for aid workers, improving deconfliction channels with aid groups, and expanding authorizations of equipment for hospitals and for repairing water and sanitation systems.
Blinken mentioned that Israel has taken steps to improve the humanitarian situation, such as opening additional crossings into Gaza, but stressed that more needs to be done to reduce civilian casualties.
Addressing the dire situation in Gaza, Blinken highlighted the displacement of over a million people, the lack of access to clean drinking water, widespread hunger, and the destruction of most of Gaza’s sanitation system and hospitals.
“Ninety-five percent of people there cannot access clean drinking water. Hunger is everywhere. Virtually everyone in Gaza depends on aid to survive. Most of Gaza’s sanitation system has been destroyed. Fewer than a dozen of Gaza’s 40 hospitals are open, and more than 270 humanitarian workers have been killed,” he said.
Blinken emphasized the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, urging all parties to press Hamas to accept Israel’s latest hostage deal proposal. “The single most effective step we can take to address the urgent humanitarian challenges in Gaza is to reach an immediate – and ultimately, enduring – ceasefire,” Blinken said.
He shared stories of Palestinian children affected by the conflict, illustrating the human cost of the crisis. “These three children – Abed, Fadi, Dunya – and all the Palestinian civilians suffering in Gaza, we know they’re not numbers. They’re not abstractions. They’re human beings,” Blinken said.
“They’re children, they’re women, they’re men who all want the same things that we want for ourselves and for our loved ones, just like the people who were murdered in Israel on October 7th, just like the hostages who continue to be held in Gaza to this day.”
The post Blinken Criticizes Countries for Lack of Humanitarian Aid to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.