From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
US says Israel has taken steps to ease humanitarian crisis since warning
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Israel has taken several steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the Biden administration sent a letter warning that continued security assistance was at risk.
Miller points to the 50 aid trucks Israel allowed into northern Gaza over the past day, which came after 30 trucks entered the area a day earlier.
Over the past several days, Israel also reopened the Erez Crossing into northern Gaza in addition to opening a new access route from southern Gaza to northern Gaza, Miller says, adding that another route was opened for delivering aid in southern Gaza.
Israel also reopened an aid route to allow the resumption of aid deliveries from Jordan, he adds.
Israel has taken steps to approve new warehouses and other staging facilities for the UN and other humanitarian organizations aimed at easing some of the logistical burdens they have faced in storing and delivering aid inside Gaza, Miller notes.
Israel has also informed the UN and other humanitarian organizations in the past 24 hours that it would waive for 12 months the customs declarations that it has been requiring individuals to sign to bring goods in, Miller says. This follows a request from aid organizations and was one of the requests made by the Biden administration in its letter to Israel earlier this week.
While the State Department spokesperson notes that the letter does make clear that there are legal ramifications regarding US security assistance to Israel if Jerusalem doesn’t take advance the steps to address the Gaza aid crisis laid out in the letter, Miller, however, clarifies that the US is still bound to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region, indicating that the administration will not cut aid to Israel altogether under any circumstance.
“We do have an obligation under the law to ensure that Israel has a qualitative military edge. We have an obligation under the law to continue to comply with the obligations of the (10-year) MOU (on security assistance to Israel through 2028). We also have an obligation under the law to ensure that Israel complies with all elements of US law (regarding the weapons we provide),” Miller says, referring to statutes banning its use in ways that violate international humanitarian law.
