US gives Israel 30 days to address Gaza aid crisis, threatens to curb weapons supply

The White House has warned Israel it has one month to implement significant improvements to the humanitarian situation in Gaza or jeopardize the continued supply of US weapons, noting that humanitarian assistance entering the Strip has plummeted in recent months.

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

The top US officials said such developments call into question Israel’s commitment to not 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 Biden in February. The memo applies to all recipients of US security assistance.

The letter was sent just weeks before the November 5 US presidential election; but its November 13 deadline would ostensibly mitigate some of the political fallout, given that US President Joe Biden will be a lame duck when deciding whether Israel has taken the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the NSM.

An Israeli official in Washington later told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem was reviewing the latter. “Israel takes this matter seriously and intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts,” the official said.

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 [since] dropped by more than 50 percent,” Blinken and Austin wrote, 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 wrote.

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

The February NSM required recipients of US security aid to provide assurances that they would not use it to violate human rights or restrict humanitarian aid in areas where US weapons are being used.

Failure to adhere to the memo’s terms would place the administration in violation of US law, thereby jeopardizing continued offensive weapon shipments to the country in question.

The memo did not single out any specific country but was issued amid increasing calls by progressive lawmakers in the US to condition aid to Israel due to concerns over its military operations in Gaza. Those were triggered by the October 7 attacks in which Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251.

The memo also required Blinken to periodically update Congress on aid recipients’ adherence to its terms.

Last May, Blinken provided Congress with the first of such updates, informing lawmakers that it was reasonable to assess that Israel had used some US-supplied weapons in a manner that was inconsistent with international law. However, the secretary of state noted that Israel’s assurances that it would comply with the memo were “credible” and that there was not yet sufficient proof that Israel had violated those commitments.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the letter during a briefing later Tuesday but said it was a private correspondence that Washington hadn’t planned to publicize, hinting that Israeli officials were behind its release.

The demands from Blinken and Austin focused 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.

Regarding the first category, the pair of Biden cabinet members said Israel must enable the entry of at least 350 aid trucks into Gaza each day through all four major crossings controlled by the IDF.

Blinken and Austin also urged implementing “adequate” pauses in the IDF’s fighting to enable humanitarian operations and allow Palestinians in the Mawasi coastal humanitarian zone to move inland before the winter. They noted that “multiple evacuation orders have forced 1.7 million people” to seek refuge in the area.

Regarding aid from Jordan, the US urged reinstating a minimum of 50 to 100 commercial trucks per day, after the number fell significantly in recent months.

As for northern Gaza, the pair of Biden aides urged Israel to clarify that there is no government policy to forcibly evacuate civilians from this part of the Strip and ensure that aid groups have continued access to the area.

Earlier this month, the IDF issued evacuation orders for the northern city of Jabaliya and surrounding areas, as it works to prevent the resurgence of Hamas. The operations have alarmed humanitarian agencies and governments abroad who fear Israel is adopting a policy recommended by several former Israeli generals, which calls for north Gaza to be cleared of civilians and for remaining combatants to be put under siege until they surrender.

Israel has denied trying to implement this policy. It also rejects accusations of hampering aid supplies.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, posted on social media over the weekend that there are currently five bakeries producing 1.3 million pita breads per day in northern Gaza.

Toward the end of the letter, Blinken and Austin expressed their concern over legislation recently advanced in the Knesset aimed at barring the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants from operating in Israel.

The pair said they recognize Israel’s concerns over some UNRWA members’ ties to Hamas and involvement in the October 7 onslaught, and that Hamas is “misusing” the UN organization’s facilities.

However, the “enactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response at this critical moment and deny vital educational and social services to tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which could have implications under relevant US law and policy.”

As part of a law passed earlier this year, the US is barred from funding UNRWA until March 2025, though the White House said last month that it backs the restoration of that aid “with appropriate safeguards.”

The pair also noted reports of abuse against Palestinian detainees and urged to allow them to be visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Blinken and Austin ended the letter by stressing the need for establishing a new channel through which the US and Israel can discuss “civilian harm incidents.”

“Our engagements to date have not produced the necessary outcomes. We ask that the initial virtual meeting of this channel be held by the end of October,” the pair wrote.

The month after the memorandum was issued earlier this year, the US deemed Israel to be in compliance with its criteria.

Last week, Miller said at a press briefing that the idea had always been for “ongoing assessment” and that though the administration has not concluded that Israel is blocking the delivery of aid, “it is urgent that they [Israel] correct the situation and allow humanitarian aid to get in.”

However, US officials have more recently sounded the alarm over the growing humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, amid reports from the UN’s World Food Programme a few days ago that no assistance had entered that part of the Strip in nearly two weeks. Limited aid has since been renewed.

During a call Sunday between Gallant and Austin, the US defense secretary “raised the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed that steps must be taken to address it,” according to a Pentagon readout.

The same day, US Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris called on Israel to do more to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza.

“Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water, and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected,” she tweeted from her VP account on X.

Responding to the letter from Blinken and Austin, the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby group slammed the Biden administration for warning US military assistance could be limited if Israel doesn’t implement its demands.

“Threatening to cut off American support for Israel as it confronts Iran and its proxies on seven fronts weakens our ally, undermines American interests, and sends a dangerous message to our common enemies about US support for our democratic allies,” AIPAC wrote on X, asserting that Israel has taken steps to address the crisis under difficult conditions.

The ongoing war has already previously upset military aid to Israel. Since earlier this year, the Biden administration has withheld the delivery of a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel over concerns they would be used in densely populated areas.

Israel subsequently tailored its operations to account for the administration’s concerns of mass civilian casualties and the two allies worked to patch up their differences.