WASHINGTON: The United States has warned Israel that it must take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on military aid, in the strongest such warning since Israeli operations against Hamas began a year ago.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to Israeli officials on Sunday expressing concern over the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian enclave, US officials said on Tuesday.

“We are writing now to underscore the US government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” they wrote in a letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X.

Failure to do so could impact US policy, said the letter, which was first reported by Israeli News 12.

Secretaries of state and defence write letters to Israeli officials drawing their attention to plight of the displaced

Officials confirmed the letter’s veracity and said it had been sent to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

The letter is the clearest ultimatum yet to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government since the Gaza conflict began, raising the prospect of a shift in Washington’s support for Israel.

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Washington has frequently pressed Israel to improve conditions of displaced Gazans since the crisis unfolded on Oct 7 last year.

The Biden administration has mostly declined to impose restrictions on the billions of dollars of military aid the United States sends to Israel, even after previous warnings over its conduct were not heeded.

Balancing act

The administration, which has consistently said it supports Israel’s right to defend itself, appeared to balance its criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza with a strong show of military support by announcing on Sunday — the same day as the letter — that it would send US troops and advanced THAAD anti-missile batteries to Israel.

The letter outlined specific steps Israel must take within 30 days, including enabling a minimum of 350 trucks to enter Gaza per day, instituting pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery and rescinding evacuation orders to Palestinian civilians when there is no operational need.

“Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for US policy and relevant US law,” the letter said.

It cited Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.

It also cited a memorandum President Joe Biden issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.

Blinken earlier this year concluded that Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using US-supplied weapons and did not fully cooperate with efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, but said this did not amount to a breach of US law.

Bureaus within the State Depart­ment had earlier reported to Blinken instances of Israeli military actions that “arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid”, including rejecting entire trucks of aid due to a single “dual-use” item and repeated attacks on humanitarian sites, according to an internal State Department memo.

Seth Binder, director of advocacy at the Middle East Democracy Center, said the letter showed senior US officials know that Israel is restricting aid, but have been “bending over backwards to avoid enforcing US law at the expense of Palestinian civilians”.

Aid restrictions

The reports come as Israeli forces expand operations into northern Gaza amid ongoing concerns about access to humanitarian aid throughout the enclave and civilians’ access to food, water and medicine.

Food supplies have fallen sharply since Israeli authorities introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid and are separately scaling down deliveries organised by businesses.

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The United States told the UN Security Council last week that Israel needs to address urgently “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries.

Washington’s provision of military assistance to Israel has prompted protests across the United States and made some groups leery of voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov 5 presidential election.

Dozens of Democrats have also called for restrictions to be imposed on the aid, although broad support for Israel remains in Congress.

The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee has asked for a briefing from the administration on the secretaries’ letter, a spokesperson for the committee’s Republican majority said.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024