By JULIA FRANKEL, SAMY MAGDY and JACK JEFFERY

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States has decided do not punish Israel on the disastrous humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after having given him an ultimatum to increase aid for entry into the territory. But the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to the Palestinians is still at its lowest level of the year. a whole 13 month war.

Last month, the White House gave Israel 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired Tuesday, major international humanitarian groups said Israel had fallen far short of the mark.

But the US State Department announced it would take no punitive action, saying Israel had made limited progress. However, this required more measures.

Humanitarian groups accuse the Israeli army of hindering and even blocking shipments to Gaza. Almost the entire population, about 2.3 million Palestinians, depends on international aid to survive, and doctors and aid groups say malnutrition is endemic. Food security experts say famine may already be underway in hard-hit northern Gaza.

“It’s really frustrating because by almost all objective indicators, all the agencies are saying that the humanitarian situation has worsened within the time frame specified by the United States,” Aseel Baidoun, a senior official with the group, said on Wednesday. Medical Aid for Palestinians.

“Even though we have provided all the evidence that there is a risk of famine…the United States miraculously discovers that Israel is not violating the humanitarian aid law. »

Israel, which controls all crossing points into Gaza, says it is committed to providing humanitarian aid and has moved to increase aid. COGAT, the military agency responsible for aid passage, said it had taken a number of steps over the past month to increase the volume of aid entering the territory, including opening a fifth crossing – to the central Gaza – this week. Israel says the U.N. and international humanitarian groups need to do a better job distributing supplies.

Where are the support levels?

Aid to Gaza is usually measured in terms of trucks full of food and supplies entering the territory. The United States demanded 350 trucks per day – still lower than the 500 trucks per day introduced before the war.

In October, humanitarian aid plunged to its lowest level since the first month of the war. Israeli government figures show that about 57 trucks enter on average per day. The average has risen to 100 per day so far in November, slightly lower than the same month last year.

The UN, however, says there are even fewer entries. It indicates that it has received an average of 39 trucks per day since the beginning of October. This is largely because it says it cannot reach the main crossing point in the south to collect goods due to Israeli military restrictions and lawlessness.

The UN says virtually no food or other aid has reached the northernmost part of Gaza since early October. It was then that the Israeli army launched a major offensive against Hamas fighters in the area of ​​Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, cutting them off. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel says the drop in aid in October is due to the closure of crossings into Gaza during the Jewish High Holidays. It said it could not authorize deliveries to the Far North in October due to fighting.

Under international pressure, COGAT authorized two deliveries to the far north this month.

But little has been transmitted. Last week, the World Food Program said troops on the ground had ordered its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching their destination. In another shipment scheduled for Monday, WFP was only able to deliver three out of 14 trucks due to delays in obtaining troop movement authorizations. When she tried to deliver the rest the next day, she said the military refused permission.

Refusal of passage and entry

One reason for the big difference between the number of aid trucks entering Gaza according to Israel and that of the UN: hundreds of trucks are crowded on the Gaza side of the main crossing point in the south, without that the UN collects them to distribute them.

Israel accuses UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, of not doing enough to recover the shipments.

The U.N. and humanitarian groups say they often cannot reach the crossing because the Israeli military does not always coordinate safe passage amid military operations in the region and widespread lawlessness.

“If we don’t have a safe passage to get help, we won’t be able to get it. And it won’t reach those who need it,” said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA spokesperson.

UNRWA is the main agency that buys and distributes aid in Gaza, and a feud between Israel and the agency led Israel to take steps to ban it last month. Israel claims Hamas infiltrated UNRWA – a charge the agency denies.

Aid groups also accuse the Israeli military of preventing aid trucks from reaching areas where fighting is most intense, including northern Gaza.

In October, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli authorities had rejected about 43 percent of all requests for humanitarian movements and prevented another 16 percent.

Israeli authorities have also banned certain vehicles and goods from entering the enclave, humanitarian groups say, often without explanation. Rachel Morris, of the humanitarian group Mercy Corps, said trucks carrying supplies for the group’s tents had been turned away more than five times.

Israel says it refuses entry of supplies that could be used by Hamas.

“I witnessed during my visit to Gaza last week the deliberate starvation of almost 2 million civilians as the bombing continues,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major relief provider. “There is virtually no humanitarian aid entering Gaza. »

Anarchy along aid routes

The theft also blocks distribution.

The military and aid agencies both acknowledge that criminal gangs – often based in local families – steal trucks.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military directives, estimated that on some days up to 30 to 40 percent of humanitarian supplies are stolen by criminals or by Hamas.

COGAT spokesperson Shani Sasson said the Israeli army has tried to secure part of the route and find alternative routes for drivers, but it cannot accompany every aid truck and that criminal groups are always on the move.

Gaza police stopped protecting the trucks long ago, according to the UN, because Israel targeted them as part of Hamas.

MAP’s Baidoun said drivers sometimes have to pay fees to transport their aid from the crossing point to Gaza.

He said the Israeli military was “failing to create an environment conducive to delivering enough humanitarian goods to Gaza.”

Melanie Lidman contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel.

This story has been corrected to show that international aid groups said Israel was falling far short, not the United States.

Originally published: November 13, 2024 at 8:35 a.m. PST