Clinton to press Israel to allow Gaza aid

Wednesday, February 25. When she visits Israel next week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to press Israeli politicians to stop preventing aid entering the Gaza Strip. According Haaretz, American officials have said that "Israel is not making enough efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," and that the lack of aid getting through will be a central issue in Clinton's visit - her first trip to the Middle East since she became Secretary of State last month.

Clinton is scheduled to attend a donors' conference in Egypt on behalf of the Obama administration which is preparing to donate $900m of aid to the Gaza Strip. Speaking anonymously yesterday an administration official said that aid would not be allowed to fall into Hamas hands and would instead go towards non-governmental and UN organisations.

Before getting to Gaza though, the donation will have to pass through Congress where some US lawmakers are understood to be concerned about the prospect of American funds being used to help rebuild Hamas, regarded by America as a terrorist organisation. Clinton has refused to give any significant details of the aid package, saying yesterday: "We have made no decisions, and we are working across the government to determine what our approach will be."

US politicians have already seen the difficulties involved in getting any sort of aid into Gaza. Last week Senator John Kerry visited the region and was told by the UN that several truckloads of pasta were not being allowed into the coastal enclave because Israel lists rice as humanitarian aid but not pasta. Under pressure from Kerry, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak eventually allowed the pasta into the war-torn region.

FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 25, 2009