Exclusive: Biden Administration To Appoint New Special Envoy For Gaza

President Joe Biden will soon appoint Lise Grande, the current head of the government-funded United States Institute of Peace (USIP), as his new czar for humanitarian aid for Gaza, according to a USIP employee informed of her plans on Tuesday and a source familiar with the appointment.

Grande will replace David Satterfield, a former ambassador who Biden appointed to the newly established role of special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues on Oct. 15. That move came a week after Israel began a sweeping U.S.-backed offensive in the Gaza strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas.

Satterfield will continue to work at the State Department as a senior adviser, a source familiar with his plans told HuffPost. HuffPost first reported in January that he would leave his envoy role.

The U.S.-backed Israeli campaign has devastated Gaza, creating an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian region that has devolved into a famine, per an internal U.S. government assessment revealed earlier this month by HuffPost.

Humanitarian groups say Israel is still imposing unacceptable restrictions on relief for civilians in Gaza, despite promising the Biden administration for months it would do more to ease Palestinian suffering — particularly after an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers on April 1.

Some lawmakers and human rights activists believe that these aid restrictions mean that, by continuing to provide military assistance to Israel Israel, the Biden administration is in violation of American law. The International Court of Justice has repeatedly ordered the Israelis to ease their restrictions.

Meanwhile, U.S.-backed Israeli military operations continue. Most recently,