U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel despite dire conditions in Gaza

U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel despite dire conditions in Gaza

The New York Times reports:

The State Department said on Tuesday that it did not plan to decrease weapons aid to Israel, as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without the country substantially improving the humanitarian situation in war-devastated Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had warned in a letter dated Oct. 13 that the United States would reassess its military aid to Israel if it failed to increase the amount of aid allowed to enter Gaza within 30 days.

The letter said that the humanitarian situation for the two million residents of Gaza was “increasingly dire” and that the amount of aid entering Gaza had fallen by 50 percent since April.

By law, the U.S. government cannot give aid to foreign military forces deemed by the State Department to be committing “gross violations of human rights.”

U.N. officials have said Israel’s continued blocking of humanitarian aid and targeting of humanitarian workers constitute violations of international law and could amount to war crimes.

Food insecurity experts working on an initiative controlled by U.N. bodies and major relief agencies said last week that famine was imminent or most likely already occurring in northern Gaza. U.N. officials say the entire population of Gaza is facing food insecurity.

Israeli officials have denied creating obstacles to aid deliveries and say raids on aid trucks by Palestinians and other problems have prevented proper distribution.

On Tuesday, Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, initially gave vague answers when reporters asked whether the United States was letting the 30-day deadline pass without taking any action, despite the critical needs in Gaza.

When pressed, Mr. Patel said he did not have any changes to U.S. policy to announce. He said Israeli officials had taken some steps that met the criteria laid out in the letter last month but acknowledged they needed to do more.

“It is a very dire circumstance,” he said. “And what we need to see is we need to see these steps acted on. We need to see them implemented.”

Mr. Patel pointed to Israel’s reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the opening of a new crossing as examples of the steps Israel had taken to comply with some of the 15 demands in the letter.

But aid workers say other conditions have not been met, including the first one: ensuring that 350 trucks carrying food and other supplies enter Gaza each day. Aid workers say about 40 to 50 trucks have entered southern Gaza each day and very few have entered northern Gaza. [Continue reading…]

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