US threatens Israel with military aid suspensions over Gaza

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote to senior Israeli officials warning that continued US military assistance is in jeopardy over the spiraling humanitarian condition in the Gaza Strip, urging the Israeli government to take “urgent and sustained action” to reverse course, in a letter first reported by Axios.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said the letter follows a “relatively recent decrease in humanitarian assistance reaching the people of Gaza, which is obviously something we’ve been very, very concerned about since the beginning of the conflict”, in a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Kirby added the Biden administration’s aim is to get more concrete measures in place to increase humanitarian assistance.

The letter, dated Sunday, is addressed to Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Ron Dermer, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The top Biden officials warn against the Israeli government restricting US humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

“The Departments of State and Defense must continually assess your government’s adherence to your March 2024 assurances that Israel would ‘facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance’ to and within Gaza,” the letter states.

“The Department of State will need to conduct a similar assessment under section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide additional Foreign Military Financing assistance to Israel. We are now writing to underscore the US government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory.”

The letter’s public release sheds more light on increased tensions between the US and the Netanyahu government over the conduct of Israel’s war against Gaza.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the letter was “personal, private correspondence” and expressed frustration that “someone obviously felt the need to get out this private correspondence”.

Blinken and Austin raise alarm in the letter that the amount of aid entering Gaza has dropped by 50 percent compared to assurances provided in March and April.

The top Biden officials call for Israel to take 15 immediate steps to surge all forms of humanitarian assistance within 30 days or risk delivery of US-provided weapons.

Among the actions include enabling a minimum of 350 trucks per day to enter the strip; instituting “adequate” humanitarian pauses to allow for distribution of humanitarian assistance; enhancing security for fixed humanitarian sites; and allowing the movement of people inland from a tent camp in the coastal enclave of al-Muwasi before winter. The letter also calls for the Israeli military to “end isolation of northern Gaza”.

“Lastly, it is vitally important that our governments establish a new channel through which we can raise and discuss civilian harm incidents. Our engagements to date have not produced necessary outcomes. We ask that the initial virtual meeting of this channel be held by the end of October,” Blinken and Austin added.

“We again ask for your urgent intervention and leadership to address this situation.”

The United Nations, aid groups and other governments have raised alarm that the delivery of humanitarian assistance is being throttled as Israel has stepped up its military campaign in northern Gaza in recent weeks, following the collapse of cease-fire negotiations.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has publicly rejected limiting weapons support to Israel, raised alarm in a post on social platform X, citing the UN reporting that no food had entered northern Gaza in nearly two weeks, and called for Israel to “do more to facilitate the flow to those in need”.