Advocates question US ‘threat’ to Israel over Gaza aid: What you should know | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Senior United States officials have warned Israel that if it does not take “urgent and sustained action” to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the U.S. government may be forced to scale back its support to the key ally.

The warning, expressed in a letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and released this week, came as Israel’s years-long war on Gaza has led to famine and disease across the Palestinian coastal enclave has.

“The amount of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest in any month of the past year,” the U.S. officials said in the letter, giving Israel 30 days to respond to a series of demands to “ “to reverse the downward trend in humanitarian aid.”

Almost immediately, lawyers, human rights activists and other experts questioned the U.S. government’s apparent threat to end American military aid to Israel.

“Once again, the Biden administration is engaging in bureaucratic gymnastics to avoid enforcing U.S. law and stopping arms transfers to Israel,” Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said in a social media post -Contribution.

“In the meantime, thousands more Palestinian civilians will be killed, maimed and starved over these 30 days.”

While the US is required by its own laws to suspend military aid to a country if that country restricts the delivery of American-backed humanitarian aid, US President Joe Biden’s administration has so far refused to apply this rule to Israel, experts note .

So what is this week’s letter about, how have stakeholders and experts responded, and what might come next? Here’s what you need to know:

What was in the letter?

Blinken and Austin acknowledged the grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the risks faced by 1.7 million people forced by multiple evacuation orders to a narrow coastal area in the bombarded area.

They said they were “particularly concerned” that recent Israeli actions were “contributing to an accelerated deterioration” of conditions. These measures include Israel’s blocking of commercial imports into Gaza and the “denial or obstruction of nearly 90 percent of humanitarian movements between north and south Gaza in September.”

The letter called on the Israeli government to take a number of actions over the next 30 days, including:

• Allow at least 350 trucks per day to enter the Gaza Strip
• Providing “appropriate humanitarian pauses” to allow humanitarian deliveries and distributions to continue for at least the next four months
• Lifting of evacuation orders “if there is no operational need”

U.S. leaders also called on Israel to “put an end to it.” [the] Isolation of the northern Gaza Strip” – where Israeli forces recently launched an intensified attack – allowing humanitarian groups access to the area and reiterating that there is no Israeli government plan to displace Palestinian civilians.

What US law is Israel accused of violating?

In their letter, Blinken and Austin cited Section 620I of the US Foreign Assistance Act, a law that regulates the country’s provision of foreign aid.

“No assistance shall be provided to any country under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act upon notice to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transportation or delivery of humanitarian assistance from the United States,” the section states.

The law is an exception to the rule, allowing aid to continue to be provided to a country if a U.S. president determines it is in the national security interest of the United States. But the president must inform congressional committees that such a decision has been made and why.

Biden did not invoke this waiver in the case of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and Biden has approved an additional $14 billion in aid since the war in Gaza began in early October 2023.

What is happening on the ground in Gaza?

Israel has denied blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza and its COGAT agency – which monitors deliveries – said it would continue to expand its “efforts to facilitate humanitarian assistance throughout the Gaza Strip.”

However, the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have for months accused the country of obstructing their efforts to provide food, water, medicine and other essential aid to the Palestinians.

Concerns about a worsening humanitarian crisis escalated recently after the Israeli military issued further evacuation orders and tightened its siege on the northern Gaza Strip as it launched a renewed ground offensive in the region.

On Thursday, the UN hunger monitoring system, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said 1.84 million Palestinians in Gaza were facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Of these, 133,000 experienced “catastrophic” insecurity.

Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International, warned that Israel is “forcing civilians to choose between starvation or displacement while their homes and streets are relentlessly bombarded by bombs and shells.”

Joyce Msuya, the acting U.N. humanitarian chief, told the Security Council this week that across the Gaza Strip, “fewer than a third of the 286 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities in the first two weeks of October occurred without major incidents or incidents.” Delays were carried out”.

“Every time a mission is hindered, the lives of people in need and humanitarian workers on the ground are put at even greater risk,” Msuya said.

Last month, 15 aid organizations – including Save the Children, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council – also reported that “Israel’s systematic obstruction to aid” has resulted in 83 percent of needed food aid not reaching Gaza.

“An average of 69 aid trucks per day reached the Gaza Strip in August 2024, compared to 500 per working day last year; which was already insufficient to meet people’s needs. In August, more than a million people in southern and central Gaza did not receive food rations,” they said.

What do experts say about this week’s US letter?

Annelle Sheline, a former U.S. State Department official who resigned over the administration’s Gaza policy, said this week’s letter was a “clear confirmation that the administration knows 620i is being violated.”

“Under U.S. law, this makes Israel ineligible to receive American weapons or security assistance,” she wrote on social media.

Others questioned why Washington gave Israel 30 days to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza before cutting off military aid, despite evidence that deliveries are being hindered.

“If [Biden] He was serious, he had already done it, as required by law,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, a think tank in Washington, DC

“After 30 days, they will thank Israel for easing some restrictions (which still do not meet legal requirements) and maintaining the flow of ammunition,” he added in a post on X.

Sarah Leah Whitson, lawyer and executive director of the U.S.-based think tank DAWN, also said that while the letter represents “an important and unprecedented signal that Israel has exceeded even the Biden administration’s permissive red lines,” there is concrete action are of crucial importance.

“We now need the Biden administration to show action, not just words, in enforcing U.S. laws that prohibit aid to Israel as it not only relentlessly obstructs humanitarian assistance but also deliberately starves and starves civilians in the Gaza Strip bombed incessantly,” she said in a statement.

Why was the letter issued now?

The dire conditions in the northern Gaza Strip – and fears that Israel’s siege of the area would endanger hundreds of thousands of Palestinians – have put restrictions on humanitarian aid back in the spotlight.

In her speech to the UN Security Council this week, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “a “A ‘hunger policy’ in northern Gaza would be terrible and unacceptable and would have implications for international and U.S. law.”

“The Israeli government has stated that this is not its policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will monitor whether Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” she said.

Critics accused Israel of imposing a plan devised by former generals to starve people in the northern Gaza Strip in order to force residents to evacuate the area and declare it a military exclusion zone.

The Associated Press news agency reported earlier this week that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was “reviewing” what it called the “general’s plan.”

The Biden administration’s letter also comes just weeks before the US presidential election, in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will face Republican former President Donald Trump.

The Biden administration’s strong support for Israel drew widespread criticism ahead of next month’s vote. Harris has faced calls to increase pressure on Israel to end the war, including by suspending arms sales to the US ally.

But Harris has rejected that demand and continued to express strong support for Israel despite warnings that her stance could cost her much-needed votes from progressives and Arab and Muslim Americans.