Sabra Lane: United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have had a phone call about increasing aid to Gaza as Israel prepares to invade the southern city of Rafah. America is not backing down from insisting that Israel needs a credible humanitarian plan to deal with refugees from that city before any military moves on Rafah. The phone conversation also comes ahead of the US Secretary of State making another trip to the Middle East to further negotiations on a ceasefire and further hostage releases. Angus Randall reports.
Angus Randall: Despite Israel building up military assets near the southern Gazan city of Rafah, there's hope that humanitarian aid will soon start to flow. Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, says the amount of aid going into the Gaza Strip will be ramped up in the coming days.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari: Over the last few weeks, the amount of humanitarian aid going into Gaza has significantly increased. In the coming days, the amount of aid going into Gaza will continue to scale up even more. Food, water, medical supplies, shelter equipment and other aid, more of it is going into Gaza than ever before. This increase in aid is a result of increased efforts.
Angus Randall: Aid organisation World Central Kitchen will soon resume distributing food in Gaza, nearly a month after seven of its aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike, including Australian Zomi Frankcom. It says it has eight million meals ready to enter through the Rafah crossing and it's repeating its call for an independent investigation into why an aid convoy was targeted by Israel. White House national security spokesman John Kirby says Israel is working to improve the humanitarian situation.
John Kirby: I will say that they have been increasing the amount of trucks that have been getting into Gaza. Now there's still challenges on the ground in getting it up into the north, but that's starting to happen and the Israelis have started to meet the commitments that President Biden asked them to meet.
Angus Randall: Israel says it plans to launch a ground offensive into Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought shelter. The White House says it wants to see a ceasefire first, to allow civilians to leave.
John Kirby: We want it to last for about six weeks. It would allow for all those hostages to get out and of course to allow for easier aid access to places in Gaza, particularly up in the north.
Angus Randall: Israel is continuing its campaign of airstrikes in Gaza and tanks are still operating in the north. Asaf Shariv is a former Israeli diplomat. He told the BBC a ground assault of Rafah is inevitable if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages.
Asaf Shariv: That is the main problem. That's why we're trying to solve the issue. If there will be a ceasefire now and the hostages will come back, hopefully we can solve this problem as well. But if not, we will have no other issue. No other option, I'm sorry.
Angus Randall: Delegations from Hamas and Israel are expected to attend peace talks in Egypt early this week. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, says there needs to be long-term solutions.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud: It's in everybody's interest in the region. Our interest, the interest of the Palestinians, the interest of the Israelis, the interest of the global community of nations, that we find a pathway to resolve this issue once and for all. Because that's the only way. We are going to avoid, first of all, a repeat.
Angus Randall: The October 7 Hamas terrorist attack killed around 1,200 people. Israel has killed 34,000 people in Gaza.
Sabra Lane: Angus Randall.
