NEW DELHI: President Joe Biden ordered the US military on Thursday to set up a temporary port off the coast of Gaza, joining international partners in trying to carve out a sea route to deliver food and other aid to desperate Palestinian civilians cut off by the Hamas-Israel war and by Israeli restrictions on humanitarian access by land.

While reiterating his support for Israel, Biden used the announcement and the bright spotlight of his State of the Union speech to renew months of US calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change how he conducts the war, including by allowing in more aid to Gaza and doing more to protect humanitarian workers there.

To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip, Biden declared before Congress. He repeated calls as well for Israel to do more to protect civilians in the fighting, and to work toward Palestinian statehood as the only long-term solution to Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The US announcement, signalling deepening US involvement in the war and the escalating fighting in the region, comes as Biden faces pressure to act more forcefully to ease what the UN says are near-famine conditions for many of Gaza's 2.3 million people.

It also shows the administration resorting to an unusual workaround after months of appealing to Israel, the US's close ally and top recipient of military aid, to step up access and protection for trucks bearing humanitarian goods for Gaza.

Meanwhile on Thursday, efforts to reach a cease-fire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts within days, appeared stalled. Hamas said its delegation had left Cairo, where talks were being held. The outline for the cease-fire included a wide infusion of aid into Gaza.
A widening humanitarian crisis across Gaza and tight Israeli control of aid trucks has left virtually the entire population desperately short of food, the UN says. 

Medical workers in northern Gaza this past week reported 15 children dead of starvation there. In a meeting pressing Israel Ambassador Michael Herzog to provide access and security for more aid trucks, the US international development director, Samantha Power, warned that blockaded Gaza faced a real risk of famine", her office said on Thursday.