US expects Gaza aid to increase over 'next few days and weeks': Rubio

WASHINGTON

The US expects humanitarian aid flows into Gaza to increase “over the next few days and weeks,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday as Israel began allowing a limited amount of aid into the besieged enclave after blocking it for nearly three months.

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing on the State Department’s budget request for fiscal year 2026, Rubio said Washington has been engaging with Israeli officials to press for the resumption of aid deliveries.

“We anticipate that those flows will increase over the next few days and weeks,” said Rubio. “It's important that that be achieved.”

The top US diplomat said he met with Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Program, while in Rome last week, where they discussed how food distribution would work if the agency is able to resume operations in Gaza.

“She outlined for me exactly how they would distribute food and how the program would work if it were to be restarted,” Rubio said.

His remarks came after the UN humanitarian affairs office on Tuesday said Israel approved the entry of around 100 trucks carrying aid into Gaza, an increase from the nine cleared a day earlier, but still far less than is needed for the population of Gaza, who face near-famine conditions, according to aid groups and international organizations.