US warns Israel to stop blocking aid to Gaza
After Israel sharply cut aid to Gaza in September and brought it to a total halt the first two weeks of October, the United States has formally warned Israel that it has 30 days to rapidly reverse the trend, or risk being deemed in violation of US laws making it eligible to receive US military assistance.
“The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks,” Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter on Sunday (Oct. 13). “Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid … International humanitarian law must be respected.”
Harris’s tweet was issued the same day that a letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was sent notifying Israel it has failed to honor assurances it made in the spring to not impede aid to Gaza, and could risk falling afoul of legal requirements for U.S. military aid recipients if rapid improvements are not made. The letter was first reported by Axios today.
“We are now writing to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” the US Secretaries wrote in the letter addressed to Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since the Israeli government provided assurances in March that it would “not arbitrarily deny, restrict or… impede” the delivery of US-supported assistance to Gaza, “the amount of aid delivered to Gaza has dropped by more than 50 percent,” the letter said.
“The amount of assistance entering Gaza in September was the lowest of any month during the past year,” it said.
“To reverse the downward humanitarian trajectory…, Israel must, starting now and within 30 days, act on the following concrete measures,” it said. “Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for …relevant U.S. law,” it warned.
Those measures include:
*Enabling a minimum of 350 trucks per day to enter Gaza through four major crossings.
*Rescinding evacuation orders where there is no operational need.
“Lastly, it is vitally important that our governments establish a new channel through which we can raise and discuss civilian harm incidents,” the letter says.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists today that Israel previously agreed to the channel to discuss incidents of civilian harm, such as a horrific incident early Monday where displaced people in a tent camp were burned alive following an Israeli airstrike on a nearby hospital grounds in central Gaza. But it “still has not been put into place.”
“I’ve seen some of those images, and they’re ghastly,” Kirby said. “They’re deeply troubling. And we have asked the Israelis urgently over the weekend for more details about those operations specifically.”
White House: We want the situation ‘turned around now’
US officials said the point of the letter was to get Israel to rapidly reverse its apparent drift into a kind of starvation siege of northern Gaza.
“The letter was not meant as a threat,” Kirby said. “The letter was simply meant to reiterate the sense of urgency we feel.”
“We want humanitarian assistance increased now,” Kirby said. “We want that situation turned around now as soon as possible.”
An Israeli official said the letter had been received and is being thoroughly reviewed.
“The letter has been received and is being thoroughly reviewed by Israeli security officials,” the Israeli official, speaking not for attribution, said. “Israeli takes this matter seriously and intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts.”
‘Surrender or starve’
Israel’s Defense Minister Gallant reportedly denied in a phone call with Austin on Sunday that Israel is pursuing a plan promoted by some former Israeli generals to force the civilian population of northern Gaza to evacuate south, or be treated as Hamas combatants and face starvation, siege, and death.
But despite the reported denial, the facts on the ground have raised concerns otherwise.
“No food aid entered northern Gaza for 12 days, people have run out of ways to cope, food systems have collapsed, and the risk of famine is real,” the World Food Program said.
“In the past two weeks, over 50,0000 people have been displaced from the Jabalya area,” in northern Gaza, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Muhannad Hadi, said Oct. 13. “Civilians must not be forced to choose between displacement and starvation.”
Note among the concrete measures the Austin/Blinken letter requested that Israel undertake:
“End the isolation of northern Gaza by reaffirming that there will be no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.”
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