London: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is about to begin a two-day trip to Israel and the wider region, part of a procession of foreign leaders who have made a personal effort to prevent the conflict from widening.
President Joe Biden said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had agreed to send many as 20 truckloads of aid into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government had said it would allow humanitarian aid into southern Gaza from Egypt as long as it can be sure none of it will be diverted to Hamas.
Biden told reporters aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop in Germany on Wednesday that Sisi had given him the assurance during a phone conversation following his visit to Israel. Earlier, Biden said he would ask Congress this week for “unprecedented support” for Israel as it prepares to crush Hamas, but also announced $100 million in US humanitarian aid for residents of Gaza and the West Bank. He also said he’d been shown evidence by the Pentagon suggesting Israel wasn’t responsible for the deadly blast at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday night.
Sunak is to land early Thursday, holding meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, before heading to “a number of other regional capitals,” his office said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. The office didn’t say what other countries might be on his itinerary.
His visit follows those of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday and Biden on Wednesday. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will travel to the region “as soon as I consider that we have a useful agenda and very concrete actions to drive forward.”
