Blinken speaks with top Netanyahu aide as US deadline for Israel to boost Gaza aid nears
AP review of UN and Israeli data shows the number of trucks entering Strip daily remains well below the 350 per day that the administration is demanding by mid-November
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Friday with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, with the pair reviewing the steps Israel has taken to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a State Department readout, which said the top Biden administration official urged further actions to surge aid to civilians in the enclave.
The call comes 12 days before a deadline set by the US for Israel to drastically improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on October 13, warning that failure to address the humanitarian crisis within 30 days could have legal implications for continued US offensive weapons shipments to Israel because recipients of such aid are legally barred from blocking humanitarian assistance.
Israel says it is not blocking aid from civilians, but the past two months have seen the least amount of aid transferred into Gaza since the start of the war with Hamas, with northern Gaza seeing particularly low amounts of aid reaching civilians there.
Blinken and Dermer also discussed necessary steps for broader regional deescalation, including ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, the US readout said. They also discussed plans for the post-war management of Gaza.
There was no statement on the call from Dermer, who is one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidantes.
The call came as the Associated Press reported that a review of UN and Israeli data found the average number of trucks entering Gaza daily remained well below the minimum of 350 a day that Austin and Blinken demanded in their letter. The mid-November deadline they set — following the US election — may serve as a final test of President Joe Biden ‘s willingness to check a close ally that has shrugged off repeated US appeals to alter its conduct in Gaza amid the war against Hamas.
Support for Israel is a bedrock issue for many Republican voters and some Democrats. That makes any Biden administration decision on restricting military funding a fraught one for the tight presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.
Before Gaza-ruling Hamas started the war with its terror onslaught on southern Israel in October 2023, an average of 500 trucks daily brought aid into the Strip. Relief groups have said that’s the minimum needed for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have since been uprooted from their homes, often multiple times.
There has never been a month where Israel came close to meeting that figure since the conflict began, which peaked in April at 225 trucks a day, according to Israeli government figures.
By the time Blinken and Austin sent their letter this month, concerns were rising that aid restrictions were starving civilians. The number of aid trucks that Israel has allowed into Gaza has plunged since last spring and summer, falling to a daily average of just 13 a day by the beginning of October, according to UN figures.
By the end of the month, it rose to an average of 71 trucks a day, the UN figures show.
Once supplies get to Gaza, groups still face obstacles distributing the aid to warehouses and then to people in need, organizations and the State Department said this week. That includes slow Israeli processing, Israeli restrictions on shipments, lawlessness and other obstacles, aid groups said.
Data from COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, shows aid has fallen to under a third of its levels in September and August. In September, 87,446 tons of aid entered the Gaza Strip. In October, 26,399 tons got in.
Elad Goren, a senior COGAT official, said last week that aid delivery and distribution in the north have been mainly confined to Gaza City.
When asked why aid was not being delivered to other parts of the north — like Jabalia, a crowded urban refugee camp where Israel is staging an offensive to prevent Hamas from regrouping in the area — he said the population there was being evacuated and those who remained had “enough assistance” from previous months.
In other areas like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, Goren claimed falsely there was “no population” left.
COGAT declined to comment on the standard in the US letter. It said it was complying with government directives on aid to Gaza. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon blamed Hamas for plundering aid.
Israel’s government appeared to blow past another deadline set in Austin and Blinken’s letter. It called for Israel to set up a senior-level channel for US officials to raise concerns about reported harm to Palestinian civilians and hold a first meeting by the end of October.
No such channel — requested repeatedly by the US during the war — had been created by the final day of the month.
Times of Israel staff contributed to the report.
