By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power acknowledged on Tuesday that humanitarian aid into Gaza had risen sharply in the past few days, and said the higher level of aid should be sustained and increased further.
"We are seeing a sea change, which we hope is sustained and expanded upon," Power said at hearing of the U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees U.S. diplomatic and foreign assistance spending.
Israel said 468 aid trucks moved into Gaza on Tuesday, following 419 on Monday. That was the highest number in the six months since its air and ground campaign triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, but the United Nations said it was still much less than the bare minimum to meet humanitarian needs.
"We need to go way beyond the 500 trucks," Power said.
"We have famine-like conditions in Gaza and supermarkets filled with food within a couple of kilometers away," she said at the hearing, which focused on the agency's fiscal 2025 budget request.
Both Democrats and Republicans questioned Power closely about conditions in Gaza, reflecting increased concern among lawmakers about the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.
Democrats in particular have been putting pressure on President Joe Biden to do more to alleviate conditions in devastated Gaza, which faces the risk of widespread famine and disease with nearly all its inhabitants now homeless.
Many have called on Biden to stop shipping offensive weapons to Israel until Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu changes tactics. In a call last week with Netanyahu, Biden threatened to condition U.S. support for Israel's offensive in Gaza on its taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians.
It was the first time that Biden, a Democrat and staunch supporter of Israel, has sought to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behavior.