From the start of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken was deeply involved.
Just after 7th October, Blinken became the first senior US official to visit Israel – on 11 October.
He stated before departure: ‘I’m going with a very simple and clear message … that the United States has Israel’s back.’
He returned a few days later, urging Israel to reconsider its decision to bomb humanitarian aid entering Gaza and to lift the ‘total siege’ on the Strip.
In exchange, US President Joe Biden offered to visit Israel himself.
Reportedly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Blinken upon his arrival on 16th October 2023: ‘I have got people in the cabinet who don’t want an aspirin to get into Gaza because of what’s happened.’
From within the Kirya (Israel’s main military headquarters in Tel Aviv), Blinken participated in intense discussions with the Israeli War Cabinet, which was directing the genocidal campaign.
Parallel conversations occurred in the broader Security Cabinet.
According to reporter Yaron Avraham, on 16 and 17 October, ‘the (Security) Cabinet deliberated for hours over the precise wording of the decision, with each draft being passed between the Cabinet room and Blinken’s room, a distance of a few metres away, inside the Kirya … Eventually, around 3.00am, they arrived at an agreed upon text that was to be read in the Cabinet room in English.’
This account was independently confirmed by another reporter, who noted: ‘The discussion with Blinken is conducted as follows: he is sitting in a room in the Kirya with his advisors and security team, while Security Cabinet holds the discussion; (Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron) Dermer goes back and forth and interfaces with him.’
Blinken concluded the day with a triumphant speech, taking responsibility for the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
‘To that end, today, and at our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organisations to reach civilians in Gaza – and them alone – including the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way. It is critical that aid begin flowing into Gaza as soon as possible.
‘We share Israel’s concern that Hamas may seize or destroy aid entering Gaza or otherwise prevent it from reaching the people who need it. If Hamas in any way blocks humanitarian assistance from reaching civilians, including by seizing the aid itself, we’ll be the first to condemn it and we will work to prevent it from happening again.’
The next day, after further Cabinet meetings chaired by Blinken and Biden, Netanyahu’s office publicly announced: ‘We will not allow humanitarian assistance in the form of food and medicines from our territory to the Gaza Strip.’
In a separate Hebrew version: ‘In light of President Biden’s demand, Israel will not thwart humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population located in the southern Gaza Strip or moving there, and as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas. Any supplies that reach Hamas will be thwarted.’
The Hebrew word meaning ‘to thwart’, is often used by Israel to describe targeted killings and assassinations.
The prior policy of ‘thwarting’ all humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza was communicated to Egypt as an explicit threat to ‘bomb’ aid trucks.
Security Cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich starkly conveyed the essence of the Blinken-approved policy.
He told Israeli media: ‘We in the cabinet were promised at the outset that there would be monitoring, and that aid trucks hijacked by Hamas and its organisations would be bombed from the air, and the aid would be halted.’
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told Drop Site News: ‘The suggestion that anyone at the State Department signed off in any way on attacks on humanitarian workers or convoys is absurd. We have always been clear… that Israel has the right to strike Hamas militants. Secretary Blinken has been equally clear that Israel needs to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered to Gaza and that humanitarian workers inside Gaza are protected.’
The State Department did not clarify whether it approved airstrikes against Hamas militants who secure aid convoys or seize their contents.
For Smotrich and other Israeli policymakers, the US’s endorsement was an opportunity to realise long-held ambitions.
In 2018, during Palestinian protests against the Israeli blockade, Smotrich stated: ‘As far as I’m concerned, Gaza should be hermetically sealed. We shouldn’t provide them anything. Let them die of hunger, thirst, and malaria. I don’t care, they are not my citizens, I owe them nothing.’
The initial part of the humanitarian aid policy approved by Blinken – the prohibition of aid entry from Israeli territory – was short-lived.
By December 2023, aid began entering directly through Israel.
However, Israel’s monitoring mechanism required all aid to undergo checks within Israel before reaching Gaza, causing significant delays.
The second policy – the ‘thwarting’ of aid shipments within Gaza if they ‘reach Hamas’ – proved effective in starving the Gazan population.
As 2023 ended, the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution to facilitate aid entry into Gaza – significantly diluted under US pressure.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres explained: ‘The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.’
Aid that entered Gaza faced further challenges as it was distributed using a limited number of trucks allowed by Israel.
The aid trucks also operated on scarce fuel, and were driven under fire over destroyed roads filled with unexploded ordnance.
They also had to deliver the aid without real-time communications due to blackouts imposed by Israel.
And over a million refugees confined to the south of the Strip had to store any food received in tents, without refrigeration, using scarce containers.
The Global Nutrition Cluster assesses that over 50,000 children under five require acute malnutrition treatment.
‘We know that this can have lifelong detrimental effects on children. Even a short period of malnutrition, let alone one that lasts a year,’ said Dr Yara Asi, co-director of the Palestine Programme for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.
‘Cognitive growth is slowed, so these children will perform worse in schools. They will be less able to participate in the economy.
‘Physically stunted growth cannot be reversed.
‘Their bodies will be permanently stunted due to the malnutrition they experienced as children.’
Asi continued: ‘There’s likely other effects that we just have not been able to study… we simply don’t know enough about how these children will grow up.’
As the US was formulating policies leading to this outcome, it sought to help Israel construct a narrative to continue starving Gaza’s population unimpeded.
‘The images (seen) in America are brutal. There are enemies of Israel that are actively telling the story in a very negative way,’ US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, told Israeli academics in July.
‘Israel needs to tell the story that it is making sure that people are getting what they need for there not to be a famine.’
The State Department continuously offers lip service to Palestinians’ suffering.
When asked about the US’s responsibility for the spread of starvation in Gaza, spokesperson Matthew Miller responded: ‘It is the United States that has secured all of the major agreements to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza … and together convinced Israel to open the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian assistance in.’
In reality, Blinken and Biden’s visit resulted in the formulation of the Israeli policy of starvation as it stands today.
‘The United States, including Blinken and others, have legitimised this tactic,’ said Asi – “Starvation as a weapon of war is okay as long as we agree with your aims”.’
That US-approved policy was implemented using US-manufactured weapons, backed by US-imposed sanctions, under a US-constructed narrative.
