Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse The UN said Tuesday that the population of the Gaza Strip was facing the worst restrictions on humanitarian aid in a year, expressing particular concern about the devastating impact of this situation on children.
Léon Bruneau – Agence France-Presse in Washington
Published at 15:06 Updated at 17:09
- Middle East
The United States threatened Israel on Tuesday to cut off some of its military assistance if there is no significant improvement in humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, giving it a 30-day deadline.
The warning comes in a letter dated Sunday from U.S. Secretary of State and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Israeli officials, deploring the current low level of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory devastated by a year of war.
In their letter, Blinken and Austin made “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that need to be made to bring the level of assistance to Gaza back up from the very, very low levels that we have today,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, revealing the contents of the letter.
US law requires that recipients of US military aid not “arbitrarily” withhold or obstruct the delivery of US humanitarian assistance. Failing that, the United States must suspend its aid.
US President Joe Biden had already threatened to suspend American aid last spring, in view of the humanitarian situation and civilian losses in Gaza, without however carrying out his threat with the exception of a delivery of bombs at the time of the offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory.
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The State Department, which is empowered to determine whether a country is complying with U.S. law, declined on Tuesday to say explicitly whether Israel was blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
But “we hope that Israel will make the changes that we have described and recommended, and that these changes will result in a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid,” Miller said.
The letter mentions, for example, the need for Israel to allow in up to 350 trucks of humanitarian aid per day, to open a fifth crossing point into the Gaza Strip and to limit evacuation orders to what is strictly necessary.
Bombings in Beirut
Large areas of the Palestinian territory have been devastated by the war waged by Israel in retaliation for the massacre by Hamas on its territory on October 7, 2023.
And since October 6, Israeli forces have been conducting an offensive in the north of the Palestinian territory, particularly in Jabalia, where, according to them, Hamas is trying to rebuild its forces.
The UN has estimated On Tuesday, the people of the Gaza Strip were facing the worst restrictions on humanitarian aid in a year, with concerns particularly about the devastating impact on children.
“Every day the situation for children is getting worse than the day before,” said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
“In August, the amount of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza was the lowest in a month since the war began,” Elder said, adding that there were “several days in the last week [when] not a single truck was allowed in.”
“We are now probably seeing the worst restrictions on humanitarian aid ever,” he said.
The US warning comes as the Pentagon announced on Sunday that it was deploying a military-operated THAAD high-altitude missile defense system in Israel. from the United States, after missile attacks by Iran.
The United States, Israel’s primary military and political partner, has provided it with almost unwavering support, while deploring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and the number of civilian casualties.
Furthermore, regarding Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the United States for the first time on Tuesday explicitly criticized the recent bombings targeting the capital Beirut.
“We have made clear to Israel that we oppose the bombing campaign launched in recent weeks in Beirut,” the State Department spokesperson said, stressing that these strikes had decreased in intensity in recent days.
The United States has not directly called for a ceasefire in Lebanon and says it supports targeted Israeli operations against Hezbollah but is concerned about a Gaza scenario.
After a year of cross-border firefights, Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Hamas, have entered into open warfare. The Israeli army has been conducting a ground offensive against the pro-Iranian movement in southern Lebanon since September 30, accompanied by airstrikes.