US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $404 million dollars in new assistance to the Palestinians, while taking part in a humanitarian aid conference for the Gaza Strip in Jordan.
"Today, I am announcing an additional $404 million dollars in new aid to Palestinians, in addition to the more than [$1.8 billion] in development, economic and humanitarian aid the US has provided since 2021," Blinken said.
"Let's work together to ensure that more aid gets into Gaza and once it is in Gaza reaches the people who need it the most, by land, by air, by sea."
He urged all countries taking part to give more aid as "only one third of the current UN appeal is funded."
UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said that the UN estimates that $2.5 billion is needed to provide aid for people in the Gaza Strip between April and the end of the year.
Blinken said that in recent months, Israel has taken steps to address obstacles to aid delivery into Gaza, but that "it can and must do more."
Blinken called on Israel to speed up the inspection of aid trucks, shorten the list of prohibited goods, increase the deliveries of life-saving medicine, repair water and sanitation systems as well as reduce civilian casualties.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said on Tuesday at the same conference that Israel is directly responsible "for Gaza's unprecedented humanitarian crisis" and that "it is a deliberate result of a destructive war of revenge against the [Gaza] Strip."
Israel must stop using hunger as a weapon and allow flow of aid into the Strip, he said.
The conference, dubbed "Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza," was organized by Jordan, Egypt and the UN.
The meeting was attended by the leaders, foreign ministers and officials of 75 countries as well as representatives of international organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the conference website.
"The war in Gaza is now in its eighth month, with massive loss of life among civilians and suffering for the entire population of over 2.3 million Palestinians across the Strip," the organizers said.
"Famine is imminent in many parts of Gaza; trauma is widespread; every part of Gaza is in ruins. No place is safe in the Strip, and access to food, water, shelter, or medicine is practically non-existent."
In order to ease the suffering of the civilian population in the sealed-off Palestinian territory, the conference aimed to "seek commitments for a collective, coordinated response to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza," among other things.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented attacks by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas on October 7, which saw militants killing some 1,200 people across southern Israeli communities and taking another 250 hostage to Gaza, in what was the worst massacre in the country's history.
Israel responded with massive airstrikes and launched a ground offensive into Gaza at the end of October.
More than 36,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed in the ongoing fighting, and much of the coastal strip has been rendered uninhabitable for those who remain.
Speaking at the same conference, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged all parties involved in the war in Gaza to reach a ceasefire agreement.
"The horror must stop, it's high time for a ceasefire along with unconditional release of hostages," he said.
"I urge all parties to seize this opportunity and come to an agreement," Guterres added.
"The speed and scale of carnage and killing in Gaza is beyond anything in my years as Secretary General," he said. "Nowhere is safe, conditions are deplorable."