State Department denies giving Israel 'a pass' on Gaza
Vedant Patel, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson, denied at a Tuesday briefing that the U.S. is giving Israel "a pass" after President Joe Biden's administration said it would not withhold weapons earmarked for the country over dire humanitarian conditions inside Gaza.
Tuesday saw the expiry of a 30-day deadline set by the U.S. for Israel to "surge" aid into the devastated Palestinian territory, or risk restrictions on military aid. Patel said Israel met some -- but not all -- U.S. demands set out in an Oct. 13 letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"Certainly I would not view it as giving them a pass, because one, no one is up here -- certainly I'm not -- saying that the situation in Gaza or the humanitarian circumstances are rosy," Patel told journalists at a Tuesday briefing.
"It is a very dire circumstance," he added. "And what we need to see is we need to see these steps acted on. We need to see them implemented."
-ABC News' Shannon K. Kingston