Israel fails to meet US deadline for aid to Gaza – Channel 4 News

Last month, the Biden administration gave Israel an ultimatum: vastly increase the aid entering Gaza within 30 days or risk consequences, such as missing out on U.S. military aid.

That 30 day period expired yesterday. FactCheck analysis of both Israeli and UN data shows that whatever numbers you rely on, Israel missed that target by a significant margin.

Aid reaching Gaza dropped significantly after the Rafah offensive

We analyzed aid data going back to October last year, when Israel began its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ attacks on October 7.

We’ll start by looking at figures from UNRWA – the UN aid agency that the Israeli parliament recently banned – but we’ll also look at Israeli government sources.

UNRWA facts says that before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza per day – that’s humanitarian and commercial trucks combined. (So ​​not only trucks carrying humanitarian aid from NGOs, but also goods for sale from private traders.)

After Hamas’ attack on October 7 last year, Israel launched a… all blockage from the Gaza Strip – meaning that virtually no aid reached the Palestinians in that first month of the war. UNRWA figures indicate an average of only about nine trucks per day.

By April this year, the volume of aid had increased to a peak of about 190 trucks per day.

Then, in early May, Israel began its action attack on Rafah – a city in southern Gaza. This offensive resulted in the closure of the crucial Rafah border crossing, the main route for aid and supplies to enter the area.

Although alternative entry points have since come into use, aid supplies have fallen steadily since the closure of the Rafah crossing in May – to around 40 trucks per day last month, and only around 30 trucks per day so far in November.

UNRWA figures for November may be revised upwards as more commercial data arrives.

Many of the goods supplied by private traders are too expensive so that displaced Palestinians can afford it, while many do not have access to cash or bank accounts to pay them.

So if we exclude commercial trucks and look only at humanitarian aid, the picture looks even grimmer.

Israeli figures – a different story?

Israeli government facts estimates that the amount of aid entering Gaza is on average about 30 percent higher than that of UNRWA. Although UNRWA has also shown a clear decline in aid volumes since May.

An anonymous Israeli official told the Associated Press that for the month of November so far, they are driving an average of “50 trucks per day to northern Gaza and 150 per day to the rest of Gaza.” If true, that would represent a significant increase since October.

But even if the suggested total of 200 trucks per day is confirmed, this would still fall far short of the US target.

And it remains well below 500 trucks per day, which the UN says is still the minimum volume needed to meet the needs of the population.

Israel rejects claims that it is purposefully restricting aid, saying it is a new crossing for help getting in yesterday. This was one of the US demands on Israel.

This week, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel is discussing the issue with the US to see how it can “respond to humanitarian demands in difficult circumstances.”

Despite missing the aid target, the US has said it will not restrict arms transfers to Israel. to the Associated Press “We have not determined at this time that the Israelis are violating U.S. law.”

The Biden administration said Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

(IMAGE: VASSIL DONEV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock.)