Israel has failed to meet US demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war, international aid organizations said yesterday.
US President Joe Biden’s administration last month called on Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into Gaza, giving it a 30-day deadline that expired yesterday.
It warned that failure to comply could trigger US laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Photo: AFP
Israel has announced a series of steps toward improving the situation, but US officials recently signaled that Israel still was not doing enough, although they have not said if they would will take any action against it.
New Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday that he was confident “the issue would be solved.”
The Biden administration might have less leverage after the re-election of Donald Trump, who was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.
Yesterday’s report, authored by eight international aid organizations, listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said that Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.
An Oct. 13 letter signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on Israel to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing into the besieged territory; allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza.
It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Despite Israeli steps to increase the flow of aid, levels remain far below the US benchmarks. The promised fifth crossing was set to open yesterday, but residents remain crammed in the tent camps and access for aid workers to northern Gaza remains restricted. Israel also has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.
“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The report was cosigned by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
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