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The US has sent a letter to both ruling parties in Israel warning it to increase the assistance of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the next month or else face suspension of a part of the military aid it received from the US.
The letter, sent on Sunday, is the most severe known written reprimand of Israel by its chief ally, and it comes after Israel has launched a new operation in northern Gaza that claimed dozens of civilian lives.
The US says the 1.7 million Palestinians crowded into the al-Mawasi area are at “high risk of lethal contagion”
It said the US has grave concern over the increasing suffering of civilians and that Israel has denied or restricted about 90% of humanitarian access between the north and the south last month.
Israel is studying the letter, an Israeli official was quoted as saying, affirming that Israel is “serious about this issue” and “will respond to the query with the relevant US authorities.
The Israeli government has before now stated that it is aiming at the north’s Hamas operatives and has not however hindered the supply of humanitarian products.
On Monday, the Israeli military body in charge of regulating movement at borders into the Gaza Strip, Cogat reported that 30 lorries laden with WFP food aid had crossed into northern Gaaza through the Erez crossing.
That was in the wake of two weeks when the UN said no food aid reached the north and essential food items for the 400,000 Palestinians there are scarce.
A UN official has stated that Gaza is at a ‘peak’ emergency continuously.
AFP spoke to Antoine Renard, WFP in the occupied Palestinian territories where people in the north of the territory are “totally depending on aid support”, having little or no access to fresh food except through the United Nations agencies.
The US is the largest exporter of arms to Israel and the Israeli defense forces have used hi-tech aircraft, guided bombs, missiles, and shells supplied by the US to wage war against Hamas in Gaza in the last year.
It is the US letter to the Israeli government, which has been confirmed by the State Department, as stated; The Axios website was the first to report about it. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin sign it.
“We are now writing to amplify the alarm and stress to the US government that it needs to be doing these things differently and more concertedly this month if the humanitarian situation in Gaza is to be arrested and avert further worsening,” it read.
Israeli ‘rescue’ measures – evacuation orders, it claims – have ‘concentrated’ 1.7 million people in the strip of a narrow coastal territory called al-Mawasi ‘where they have a high risk of lethal contagion due’ to overcrowding and humanitarian organizations report ‘cannot be met’.
“We are especially worried that current practices of the Israeli government – stopping commercial imports, preventing or delaying almost 90 percent of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza in September, continuing rigorous and unnecessary dual-use restrictions, and implementing new clearance and costly responsibility and customs regulations for humanitarian personnel and supplies as well as new lawlessness and looting – are also worsening the situation in Gaza,” it continues.
The letter asserts that Israel must “begin now and within 30 days” take a set of specific steps to increase the volume of assistance delivered and that its failure may “have repercussions on US policy.”
It cites some US laws that may bar the provision of military aid to states that hinder the delivery of US humanitarian aid.
It calls for Israel to “ramp up all forms of humanitarian aid into Gaza before the onset of winter, including ensuring a minimum of 350 lorries a day across all four main crossings and a new fifth crossing, as well as to allow people in al-Mawasi to leave for areas further inland.
It also demands Israel to stop the “isolation of northern Gaza” through reiterating that there will be ‘no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians’ from the north to the south.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller disclosed to the media at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday that the letter was “an internal diplomatic communication which was not supposed to be disclosed to the public”.
‘Secretary [Blinken] and Secretary Austin felt it was important to remind the government of Israel that there are things they should do again to get the level of assistance https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wk0e8zey2oreaching Gaza to improve,’ he said.
Mr Miller did not wish to go into how many ramifications there are for Israel if it does not improve donations to get food and other goods to people in need.
But he noted. Beneficiaries of United States military aid cannot whimsically decline or hinder the provision of Humanitarian United States aid. That is not our policy, that is of course the law and as such we will not go against the law. But we hope that Israel will make the changes that we have outlined.”
He also said this 30-day time was not attributed to the upcoming US presidential election scheduled for 5th November, stating that it would be reasonable to leave them some time to sort out the issues.
It has in the past claimed that there is no cap on the amount of aid or humanitarian relief that can be taken into or across Gaza and accused UN agencies of not delivering the supplies. It also accused Hamas of embezzling aid, something the group has strongly refuted.
Before Israel conducted its ground incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah in May, Biden paused a single consignment of 2,000 and 500lb bombs for the first time as he sought to avert an all-out Israel assault.
But the president quickly drew fire from Republicans in Washington and from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who seemed to liken it to an “arms embargo”. This was partially lifted in July and has not been done again.
This morning, the ICRC said that families in northern Gaza are living in incredible fear and pain because of the Israeli military operation that started 10 days ago.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has redeployed tanks and troops into the town of Jabalia and the adjacent refugee camp for the third time due to the reappearance of Hamas fighters in the area.
They have directed residents of Jabalia camp as well as nearby Beit Lahai and Beit Hanoun areas to move their occupants to the al-Mawasi ‘humanitarian zone’.
The UN reported that at least 50,000 residents have escaped to Gaza City and other areas determining the north of the strip. But for many it is unsafe to leave their homes or they are unable to leave because of sickness or disability.
A man named Khalid from Jabalia whose voice remains taped in the new BBC revelations of the past year explained in a voice note that they had been under some sort of threat for a week.
We were ordered to go to the south, but we couldn’t because the Israeli army had blocked the region, either with dirt mounds or with quadcopter drones. This realization presents a picture like this one: “We can’t move, it’s too difficult.”
At the same time for the same reason because of the intensive bombing, we feel constantly terrified. My daughter is sick now, she has a fever. She is trembling all over from the sound of bombings and I do not know how to handle her at that moment. I can no longer transport her to the hospital he added to the statement.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said its first responders had pulled the bodies of 42 people killed by Israeli air and artillery strikes in Jabalia and neighboring areas on Tuesday.
The air raid was said to have claimed the lives of 11 individuals from one family, most of whom were women and children, and whose house was damaged beyond repair.
The army of Israel said on Tuesday that its soldiers had eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in the area of Jabalia, in the last twenty-four hours.
Israel’s human rights organizations on Monday issued a warning about what they called “worrying indications of the commencement of the quiet implementation of the Generals’ Plan by the Israeli army’ which reflects the general opinion of My People”.
According to this contentious document, all residents of the north are to be relocated by force; afterward, the surviving Hamas fighters will be encircled to compel their capitulation and the return of captured Israeli nationals.
The military spokesperson for Israel insists that this plan is not in effect and explains that they are merely “getting civilians out of harm’s way”.
On 7 October 2023, a group classified as Hamas attacked southern Israel in a manner never seen before with in its aftermath, around 1,200 dead and 251 hostages taken. Israel was out for a campaign determined to eliminate Hamas.
Since then, the health ministry governed by Hamas in the territory has reported over 42,340 casualties in Gaza.
