During a State Department press briefing on Tuesday, Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked if US officials have spoken to Israeli PM Netanyahu about a proposed military occupation of Gaza.
00:00Thank you so much. Just to follow up on my colleague's question on Gaza.
00:03Yes.
00:03Have U.S. officials spoken with Netanyahu about this potential plan for a complete military takeover of Gaza?
00:11I won't remark on any conversations whether or not they have occurred.
00:15Okay. And then Axios is reporting that Whitcoff and President Trump discussed plans for the U.S. to increase its role in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
00:23What will this look like and how quickly will the U.S. act?
00:26I know Trump has mentioned food centers. Where does that stand now?
00:31Well, as we all know, every few minutes things change.
00:35When we say something's fluid on the ground, this couldn't be a better example of the nature of how things are moving.
00:42I can tell you that after the visit from Special Envoy Whitcoff and Ambassador Huckabee,
00:48they went at the behest of the president who wanted people on the ground to be able to report back to him exactly what was happening.
00:56Most of us, of course, are relying on reports from various areas.
01:01They have reported back to the president.
01:04What I won't do is get ahead of what the president will decide about what he's heard and the actions that he will decide to take.
01:12He will – obviously, he'll make that known to everyone.
01:16But what we do know, of course, from the beginning is that humanitarian aid has been at the heart of our action,
01:23not just for Gaza but around the world, in my topper, as we call it.
01:28I mentioned, of course, our current standing with the Philippines and assistance there.
01:32But we do know, of course, just as a reminder for people who might not know, Special Envoy Whitcoff spent over five hours inside Gaza this last weekend to assess the situation
01:42and to begin planning the best way to deliver urgent food and medical care to Gaza.
01:49And while we don't have anything to announce at this point, obviously it's rather early regarding the end result of that, that still remains our priority.
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