US warns Israel that weapon supply at risk if Gaza aid crisis not addressed in 30 days

The Biden administration warned Israel on Sunday that it has one month to implement significant improvements to the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk the continued supply of US weapons.

In a letter to Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer obtained by The Times of Israel on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin say the past several months have seen a significant deterioration in the amount of aid entering Gaza.

The top US officials explain that such developments call into question Israel’s commitment not to restrict the entry of aid into Gaza and that it is using US weapons in line with international law.

That written commitment was provided last March in order to ensure Israel’s compliance with a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by US President Joe Biden in February. The memo applies to all recipients of US security assistance.

While Israel implemented a series of provisions to improve the flow of aid into Gaza after promising to do so in the spring, “the amount of aid delivered has dropped by more than 50 percent,” Blinken and Austin write, adding that the amount of aid that entered Gaza in September was the lowest of any month during the past year.

“To reverse the downward humanitarian trajectory and consistent with its assurances to us, Israel must — starting now and within 30 days — act on the following concrete measures,” they write, referring to several recommendations laid out later on in the letter.

“Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for U.S. policy under NSM-20 and relevant U.S. law,” the letter states.

The demands from Blinken and Austin focus on three categories: Increasing the supply of humanitarian aid by the start of winter; facilitating the aid delivery route through Jordan; and ending the “isolation” of northern Gaza.