On October 22, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.Chuck Kennedy/American State/ZUMA Press

In mid-October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a strongly worded letter to senior Israeli officials. In the memo, they made it clear that the United States was aware of Israel’s action. aid blocking north of Gaza. They demanded that Israel improve humanitarian conditions by letting in 350 trucks of food aid per day, ending the forced evacuation of northern Gaza and opening more crossing points into the territory. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United Nations ambassador to the United States, said such measures were necessary to combat a “politics of starvation.” If Israel fails to do so within 30 days, Blinken and Austin threatened, the United States would consider implementing arms transfer laws that prohibit sending weapons to countries that block aid. humanitarian.

Yesterday, thirty days later, Biden administration officials said they would miss their own deadlines. Military aid to Israel will not stop, even if data provided by Israel own government notes that the amount of aid entering Gaza decreased between September and November.

At a State Department press briefing on November 12, officials were unable to answer reporters’ questions about whether or not Israel had succeeded in meeting the 30-day deadline. “At this time, we have not assessed that the Israelis were violating U.S. law,” department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

In their October 13 letter, Blinken and Austin said the Israeli government must reaffirm “that there will be no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians from the north to the south of Gaza.” That didn’t happen either. Instead, an Israel Defense Forces general told media last week that civilians who fled the north will not be allowed to return home.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza, told reporters Tuesday that “Israel has authorized a daily average of 76 trucks over the past 30 days.” The United Nations said that number is closer to 50 – far lower than the 350 that the United States said would be needed to avoid widespread famine, and a tiny fraction of the 500 aid trucks that were entering each day. Gaza before October 2023.

On Tuesday, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department spokesman Patel why the letter contained so many specific provisions if vague assurances of “improvement” in Gaza were enough to satisfy states. -United.

“Why did you bother putting in 350 trucks a day if it didn’t matter?” » asked Lee.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Patel said.

“We didn’t give the Israelis 30 days, you did,” Lee responded. “And now those 30 days are up, and all the metrics you put out there no longer matter.”

“We are not giving Israel a free pass,” Patel said. “We want to see the overall humanitarian situation improve, and we believe that some of these measures will create the conditions necessary for this progress to continue. » Some conditions, he said, are improving: a new border crossing has been opened in central Gaza, and a limited number of people have been allowed to move inland instead of being stuck on the beach in tents in winter.

But the same day, eight humanitarian organizations released a report showing that, according to aid workers and international observers on the ground, the Biden administration’s conditions for continued military aid had not been met.

“Not only has Israel failed to meet US criteria indicating support for the humanitarian response, it has at the same time taken steps that have significantly worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza,” they wrote the eight organizations, including Oxfam and MedGlobal. “This situation is even more dire today than it was a month ago. »

However, the State Department has not indicated that it will follow through on its threats to suspend arms deliveries: and, in fact, just last week, Israel signed a $5 billion contract to 25 new fighter jets produced in the United States as part of ongoing assistance.