US threatens to block Israel aid without Gaza improvements

WASHINGTON

A Palestinian boy looks at destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli airstrike which hit tents for displaced people two days earlier in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Oct. 16, 2024

The United States has warned Israel that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to the war-battered Gaza Strip within 30 days.

The warning comes a year into the Israel-Hamas war in which President Joe Biden has repeatedly pleaded with Israel to spare Palestinian civilians, although he has only once made good on a promise to stop a weapons shipment.

In a letter sent on Oct. 13, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made "clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Oct. 15.

The letter pointed to U.S. law requiring that "recipients of U.S. military assistance do not arbitrarily deny or impede provisioning of U.S. humanitarian assistance."

"Our hope is that Israel will make changes that we have outlined and that we have recommended, and as a result of those changes will be a dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance."

The letter addressed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was first reported by Axios on Oct. 15, with the State Department saying it was intended to remain private.

In the letter, Blinken and Austin urge Israel to let at least 350 trucks of aid enter per day, to open a fifth crossing into Gaza and to rescind evacuation orders to Palestinians when there is no operational need.

The State Department said that earlier U.S. pressure allowed the entry of 300 to 400 trucks per say but that overall aid has fallen by more than 50 percent from its peak.

An Israeli official said that Tel Aviv is reviewing the letter. U.N. humanitarian officials said last week that aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appears to be no comprehensive system in place to facilitate evacuations of sick Gazans to other countries for treatment.

The order stems from a petition filed by three Israeli human rights groups in early June, following the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after the Israeli military began assaulting the area in May.