Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan did appear to obtain one major concession from Israel, which announced shortly after he left that it would open the main road link into Gaza for aid shipments for the first time since the conflict escalated.

Previously, aid permitted into Gaza has been trucked to Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, inspected there, and then trucked back into Egypt to enter through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing, designed mainly for pedestrians.

Aid agencies, warning of mass starvation and disease for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, have long pleaded for Israel to speed up deliveries by letting aid enter directly at Kerem Shalom.

The Israeli cabinet said its decision to do so would allow 200 trucks per day into Gaza, compared to a capacity of just 100 at Rafah. Sullivan said Washington welcomed “this significant step”, which he said he had been informed of before he left.