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The United States on Tuesday issued a warning to Israel, saying that it may withhold a portion of its billions of dollars in military assistance if Israel does not improve aid delivery to the war-torn Gaza Strip within the next 30 days.
In a letter sent on Sunday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin made “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today,” according to state department spokesman Matthew Miller.The letter highlighted US law, which mandates that “recipients of US military assistance do not arbitrarily deny or impede provisioning of US humanitarian assistance.”
The letter, addressed to Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, was initially intended to remain private but was first reported by Axios. “We are particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government are contributing to an accelerated deterioration in the conditions in Gaza,” said a copy of the letter posted by an Axios reporter on X.
The warning comes a year after the Israel-Hamas war, during which President Joe Biden repeatedly urged Israel to spare Palestinian civilians, although he only once followed through on his promise to halt a weapons shipment.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin urge Israel to allow at least 350 trucks of aid to enter Gaza per day, open a fifth crossing into the territory, and rescind evacuation orders for Palestinians when there is no operational necessity.
The state department noted that earlier US pressure had enabled the entry of 300 to 400 trucks per day, but overall aid has decreased by more than 50 percent from its peak.
Despite being one of the strongest international supporters of Israel since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023, the United States has repeatedly issued warnings to Israel regarding the situation in Gaza.
The letter requests action within 30 days, meaning that any evaluation would take place after the US election, during which Biden’s Democratic Party has faced criticism from its left flank for not doing enough to restrain Israel.
Vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in a tight race to succeed Biden, also voiced alarm over the weekend at a UN assessment that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly two weeks.
“Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” Harris wrote on X.
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