On October 13, the Biden administration issued a forceful letter to Israel with a clear directive: Within 30 days, permit increased humanitarian aid into Gaza, or risk the withdrawal of US military support.
At that moment, Israel was initiating its blockade on northern Gaza, where thousands of civilians were seeking refuge.
The confidential letter, authored by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and addressed to Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, detailed specific demands to ensure the delivery of supplies into Gaza to combat starvation, address the shortage of medical resources, and prevent the forced displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza.
When the 30-day deadline arrived on Tuesday, November 12, a coalition of humanitarian organisations released a report indicating that Israel has largely failed to meet the criteria set by the US in the October letter.
In reaction, the US announced it will continue supplying arms to Israel.
‘We at this time have not made assessments that the Israelis are in violation of US law,’ State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel informed reporters during a briefing on Tuesday.
‘We are going to continue to assess their compliance with US law.’
‘We’ve seen some progress being made, we’d like to see more changes happen.’
For humanitarian aid groups operating in Gaza, the State Department’s stance appears disconnected from the reality on the ground.
Eight humanitarian organisations published a report on Tuesday that evaluated each of the letter’s demands, revealing Israel’s shortcomings on nearly all of them.
The ‘Gaza Scorecard’ demonstrated that over the past 30 days, Israel has not opened any new border crossings into Gaza; only 42 trucks have been permitted per day, significantly less than the US benchmark of 350 trucks; the Israeli military has killed four aid workers; a polio vaccine clinic was bombed during a humanitarian pause; approximately 80 per cent of Gaza remains under evacuation orders, perpetuating the displacement of Palestinians; and aid organisations have been blocked from accessing northern Gaza, where the Israeli military continues its blockade.
‘How much more evidence does the US government need to respect its own laws and humanitarian standards?’ Joseph Belliveau, executive director of MedGlobal, one of the groups behind the report, questioned.
‘It should end all military support today.’
This marks yet another instance of Israel disregarding Biden’s red lines without consequences.
MedGlobal has approximately 300 aid workers in Gaza who are establishing clinics, managing surgery wards in hospitals, and offering other medical assistance, according to Belliveau, who previously served as director of Doctors Without Borders – Canada.
He reported that their staff have observed high levels of malnutrition and the spread of preventable diseases, such as measles, as well as respiratory infections among patients in Gaza.
Their medical teams perform surgeries daily on civilians, predominantly women and children, injured by Israeli attacks.
Additionally, four MedGlobal workers have been detained by the Israeli military without explanation.
‘How many ways can you die right now in Gaza?’ Belliveau questioned.
‘You can be hit by an airstrike, targeted by snipers, die from disease, or succumb to famine and malnutrition.
‘Simultaneously, not only are Palestinians exposed to all these extreme risks, but the humanitarian and medical personnel needed to address this level of humanitarian need are almost completely shut out.’
Scott Paul, director of peace and security at Oxfam America, which also contributed to the report, commented that the Biden administration’s decision to maintain military support to Israel ‘has put a final, deadly exclamation point on its policy of disregard for US law and the lives of Palestinians’.
‘Now, as communities in North Gaza are erased and starved to death, Israel will receive a steady stream of US weapons with a newly furnished seal of approval,’ Paul remarked.
‘We provided sound humanitarian evidence and it was ignored.
‘This is an unsurprising but still disgraceful decision.’
This is not the first occasion the Biden administration has threatened to leverage US law to halt military aid to Israel.
In March, Israel agreed to a memorandum known as ‘NSM-20’, which required the State and Defence departments to obtain credible assurances that Israel was not using US weapons to violate international law.
The administration has also cited the Leahy Law, which prohibits US assistance to ‘any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.’
However, in May, despite growing evidence of Israel’s efforts to obstruct humanitarian aid into Gaza, the State Department issued a report expressing ‘deep concerns’ about Israel, but affirming that it had been compliant with the law.
The provision of arms continued.
During Tuesday’s press briefing, Patel stated that the State Department would persist in evaluating whether Israel is breaching international law and would consult with aid organisations and the United Nations to make these assessments.
When asked if the State Department had reviewed the report from aid groups, he declined to comment on its findings.
Moreover, data from the UN support the report’s conclusions, indicating that October saw the lowest number of aid crossings into Gaza.
‘When we’re talking about specific metrics or specific actions on the ground, the hope is that operational changes made on the ground would make it possible for an additional increase in humanitarian aid and trucks to get into places where it needs to go,’ Patel reiterated.
He emphasised that the Israeli government has made ‘progress’ with measures such as waiving customs fees and allowing the Jordanian Armed Forces into Gaza to deliver aid.
The humanitarian groups’ report acknowledges the partial implementation of these measures but notes that major obstacles persist: Some aid organisations are still being charged fees to enter Gaza, with enforcement being inconsistent.
Overall, the report concluded that Israel only partially or inconsistently fulfilled four of the 19 demands outlined in the October letter from Blinken and Austin, failing to meet the remaining 15 demands entirely.
Belliveau mentioned that MedGlobal has been communicating with senators and the Biden administration over the past year, advocating for the application of the Leahy Law without success.
He indicated that with the transition to a Donald Trump presidency, there is an opportunity for his organisation to renew efforts to urge the US to adhere to its own laws, though he holds little optimism regarding the president-elect’s willingness to act.
‘Individually, we receive considerable sympathy for our position and acknowledgment that laws are being violated and that these are not the standards Americans wish to uphold — and yet, publicly, we continue to hear platitudes from the government and see actions that provide no evidence of any restraint or reduction in support for the regime committing these crimes,’ he explained.
As the deadline passed on Tuesday, an Israeli strike targeted a house in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 32 people, including 13 children.
Last week, the Israeli government announced that it is approaching the ‘complete evacuation’ of northern Gaza, and residents would not be permitted to return.
Israeli Brigadier General Itzik Cohen stated that once the evacuation occurs, humanitarian aid would cease to reach northern Gaza since there would be ‘no more civilians left’.
