JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has failed to meet U.S. demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war, international aid organizations said Tuesday.
The Biden administration last month called on Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory, giving it a 30-day deadline that expires Tuesday. The administration warned that failure to comply could trigger U.S. laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel has announced a series of steps toward improving the situation. But U.S. officials recently signaled that Israel still isn’t doing enough, though they haven't said if they will take any action.
Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday that he was confident “the issue would be solved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after the reelection of Donald Trump, who was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.
Tuesday's report, authored by eight international aid organizations, listed 19 measures of compliance with the U.S. demands. It said that Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.
An Oct. 13 letter signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on Israel to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing into the besieged territory; allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder the operations of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
After the report was published, the Israeli military announced the opening of a fifth crossing Tuesday close to the city of Deir al Balah in Gaza. It will allow for the delivery of supplies to the territory's central and southern regions.
Despite Israeli steps to increase the flow of aid, levels remain far below the U.S. benchmarks. Residents are also still crammed in tent camps, access for aid workers to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.
"Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza," the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week that Israel had made some progress, but needs to do more to meet the U.S. conditions.
“What's important when you see all of these steps taken is what that means for the results,” he said.
Israel launched a major offensive last month in northern Gaza, where it says Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands. Israel has allowed almost no aid to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.
Aid to Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, or less than half the previous month, according to Israeli data.
U.N. agencies say even less actually gets through because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness that makes it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.
In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, according to Israeli figures, and 81 a day in the first week of November. The U.N. puts the number lower, at 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said that the drop in the number of aid trucks in October was because of closures of the crossings for the Jewish high holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war.
“October was a very weak month,” an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing rules. “But if you look at the November numbers, we are holding steady at around 50 trucks per day to northern Gaza and 150 per day to the rest of Gaza.”
Aid distribution is also being hampered by the U.N. and other agencies' failure to collect aid that entered Gaza, leading to bottlenecks, and stealing by Hamas and organized crime families in Gaza, he said. He estimated as much as 40% of aid is stolen on some days.
Israel on Monday announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter in sprawling tent camps. It also has announced additional steps, including connecting electricity for a desalination plant in the central Gaza town of Deir al Balah, and efforts to bring in supplies for the winter.
On Tuesday, COGAT announced a “tactical” delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun, one of the hardest-hit towns in northern Gaza. Also on Monday night, the Israeli security Cabinet approved increased aid for Gaza, which will increase the number of trucks that enter Gaza each day, according to an official familiar with the matter.
The war began last year when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who don't say how many of those killed were militants. Around 90% of the population has been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.
The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war and has shielded it from international calls for a cease-fire, while pressing it to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The amount of aid entering Gaza increased under U.S. pressure last spring after Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers before dwindling again.
Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his reelection last week.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is mostly ceremonial, is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Former U.S. State Department official Charles Blaha, who ran the office in charge of ensuring that U.S. military support complies with U.S. and international law, predicted the Biden administration would find that Israel violated U.S. law by blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.
“It’s undeniable that Israel has done that,” Blaha said. “They would really have to torture themselves to find that Israel hasn’t restricted ... assistance."
But he said that the administration would likely cite U.S. national security interests and waive restrictions on military support.
“If the past is prologue — no restrictions, and then kick the can down the road to the next administration.”
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed reporting.
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