Ambassador Huckabee Holds Live Press Gaggle on Humanitarian Aid
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivered an announcement on humanitarian aid to Gaza today (Friday), reflecting the Trump Administration’s policy.
“President Trump has made it very clear that one of the most urgent things that needs to happen is humanitarian aid into Gaza. He has tasked all of his team to do everything possible to accelerate that and to as expeditiously as possible get humanitarian aid get humanitarian aid into the people,” Huckabee began.
“Today, we are announcing that that process is ongoing. It is launched,” he stated.
Trump’s order stipulated that the food brought into Gaza be “distributed efficiently, but also that it be distributed safely.”
As the ambassador noted, previous humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza failed due to Hamas’ seizing and misuse of the aid. “Nobody is interested in helping Hamas, because Hamas has taken food that was intended to help very desperate citizens, and stolen it from them, sold it on the black market, and then took the money to but weaponry to murder more people.”
He said that Hamas would “rather take any supplies that go into Gaza and use it for their own nefarious purposes rather than to see children and other people fed.”
According to Huckabee, the US has seen a “good initial response” internationally to its current push for Gaza aid.
He further stated that reports that the Trump Administration’s plan is an “Israeli plan” are false, though Israel will be involved in the protection of the aid and the aid distributors, because it is a war zone.” However, Israel will not be involved in bringing the food into Gaza or distributing the food.
“Any allegation that the Israelis don’t care about humanitarian aid is absolutely false,” he stated. “They care very much about humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, but they also care very much that Hamas doesn’t steal that aid. That is a view that is shared by the President and by all of us at the United States because we truly want this to be a humanitarian effort.”
When asked the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza, he said that a ceasefire was dependent on the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. “Why do we still have 59 people who are hostages in Gaza?” he asked.
“Why are they still there? Why haven’t they been released? How come it has been this long, more than twice as long as hostages were held in Tehran in 1979?” he wondered. “How long must these hostages be tortured inside these tunnels before Hamas decides that they’re going to let them go?”
