Aid groups say Israel is missing the US deadline to boost humanitarian aid to Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel has failed to meet US demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than ever before in the thirteen-month warInternational aid organizations said this on Tuesday.

The obstacles facing aid distribution were on display in this exhibition this week. Even after the army authorized a delivery to the northernmost part of Gaza – virtually cut off from food for more than a month by an Israeli siege – the United Nations said it could not deliver most of it due to unrest and restrictions. Israeli side. troops on the ground.

Hunger experts have warned the North may already be facing famine.

Meanwhile, in the south, hundreds of truckloads of aid are sitting on the Gaza side of the border because the UN says it cannot reach them to distribute – again due to the threat of lawlessness, theft and Israeli military restrictions.

The Biden administration last month set a deadline that expires Tuesday, after which Israel must “pump” more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory. The administration warned that failure to comply could trigger U.S. laws requiring a reduction in military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has announced a series of steps – although their effect was unclear. On Tuesday it opened a new border crossing in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir al-Balah, to allow relief supplies to enter. It also announced a small expansion of its “coastal humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. It connected electricity to a desalination plant in Deir al Balah.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week that Israel has made some progress but must do more. U.S. officials have still not said whether they will take action.

Israel’s new Foreign Minister Gideon Saar appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters Monday that he was confident “the issue would be resolved.” The Biden administration may have less influence after the re-election of Donald Trump, who was a staunch supporter of Israel during his first term.

Eight international aid agencies said in their report on Tuesday that “Israel not only did not meet US criteria” but also took actions “that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground. especially in Northern Gaza. … That situation is in an even more dire state today than it was a month ago.”

The report listed 19 measures to meet U.S. requirements. It said Israel had failed to meet 15 and only partially met 4.

The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.

In a letter dated October 13, the US gave Israel 30 days to, among other things, allow at least 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza every day; opening a fifth intersection; allowing people in coastal tent camps to move inland before winter; and guarantee access for aid groups to northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hamper the activities of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Support levels remain well below US benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has continued to do so laws against UNRWA.

Israel launched a major offensive last month in the north, where Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands to flee.

In October and the first days of November, Israel did not allow food into the area, where tens of thousands of civilians were staying despite evacuation orders.

Last week, Israel sent 11 trucks to Beit Hanoun, one of the hardest-hit cities in the north. But the World Food Organization said troops at a checkpoint forced their trucks to unload their cargo before reaching shelters in the city.

On Tuesday, COGAT – the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza – announced that it had authorized a new delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun a day earlier. Again, the WFP said that although it tried to send 14 trucks, only three reached the city “due to delays in obtaining movement authorizations and crowds along the route.” When Israel tried to deliver the rest on Tuesday, Israel refused permission.

Aid to all of Gaza plummeted in October, when only 34,000 tons of food arrived, just a third of the previous month, according to Israeli data.

U.N. agencies say even less is actually getting through because of Israeli restrictions, continued fighting and lawlessness that make it difficult to gather and distribute aid on the Gaza side.

According to Israel’s official figures, an average of 57 trucks entered Gaza per day in October, and 75 per day so far in November. The UN says it has received only 39 trucks a day since early October.

COGAT said 900 truckloads of relief supplies have not been collected on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south.

“Before the organizations distribute figures, they should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them,” COGAT said in response to the aid groups’ report.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said the military was not coordinating the movements of relief trucks to reach the piled-up loads. “If we don’t get a safe passage to collect it, it won’t reach the people who need it,” she said.

COGAT blamed the October drop on the closure of border crossings for the Jewish holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war. An Israeli official also pointed to theft by Hamas and organized crime families in Gaza. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.

The war began last year when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The Israeli bombardment and ground invasion killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who did not say how many of the dead were militants. About 90% of the country’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.

The United States poured billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war, while simultaneously pushing to allow more aid to Gaza.

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 re-election last week.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, will meet with President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Former U.S. State Department official Charles Blaha, who headed the office charged with ensuring that U.S. military assistance complies with U.S. and international law, predicted the Biden administration would conclude that Israel has violated US law by preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.

“There is no denying that Israel did that,” Blaha said. “They would really have to torture themselves to discover that Israel has not restricted aid.”

But he expected the administration to cite U.S. national security interests and abandon restrictions on military aid.

“If the past is prologue – no restrictions, then move on to the next government.”

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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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