JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S. threatens Israel to allow more aid to the people of the Gaza Strip or reduce arms shipments to its country war with Hamas expired Tuesday but the Biden administration has said it will not limit arms transfers.

Due to Israeli border controls, the amount of incoming food and other aid is at its lowest level this year. Food security experts and rights groups warn that famine may already be underway in northern Gaza. Almost the entire population, around 2.3 million Palestinians, depends on international aid to survive as Israel and Hamas carry out their almost 13 month war.

“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. »

Israel, which controls all crossing points into Gaza, says it is committed to providing humanitarian aid and has moved to increase aid. He says the U.N. and international aid organizations need to do a better job distributing supplies, and that criminal gangs are stealing aid before it reaches civilians.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the progress made so far must be added to and sustained, but that “we have not yet assessed that the Israelis were violating U.S. law” requiring that the recipients of military assistance adhere to international humanitarian law. and not hinder the provision of this assistance.

“We are not giving Israel a free pass,” Patel said, adding that “we want to see the whole humanitarian situation improve.”

Aid to Gaza is usually measured in terms of trucks full of food and supplies entering the territory. The United States requires 350 trucks per day.

Israeli government figures show that about 57 trucks per day enter on average in October and 75 per day in November. The UN counts trucks differently and says it has only received 39 trucks per day since the beginning of October.

In northern Gaza, where the Israeli army carried out a major offensive last month, the numbers were even lower. No aid entered the northernmost areas of Gaza – Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun – in October, according to the UN.

Israel says it closed all Gaza crossings for the Jewish high holidays in October and was unable to send aid to the north because of the offensive against Hamas fighters.

Over the past two days, the military body responsible for aid deliveries to Gaza – COGAT – said it had allowed aid trucks to enter the hardest-hit northern areas. But only three trucks successfully reached their destination, according to the World Food Program.

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

“There may be help at the border, ready to arrive. But if we don’t have a safe passage to get it, we can’t have it. And it won’t reach those who need it,” said Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA is the main agency that buys and distributes aid in Gaza and a feud between Israel and the agency led Israel to ban it last month.

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 some vehicles and goods from entering the enclave, humanitarian groups say, often without reason. 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.

Under intense international pressure, Israel has since taken steps to increase aid delivery, with COGAT saying it was allowed to transport trucks to the hard-hit north. On Monday, Israel’s security cabinet approved an increase in aid to Gaza, which will increase the number of trucks entering Gaza each day, according to an official familiar with the matter.

But humanitarian groups say access remains a problem.

The World Food Program said Tuesday that vehicles filled with its supplies were denied access to Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. The day before, the UN agency said it had received permission from the army to deliver supplies to Beit Hanoun, but was stopped by troops en route to Jabaliya and ordered to unload the stocks there.

Theft and crime along aid routes also hamper distribution.

Israel accuses UNRWA of failing to collect hundreds of truckloads of supplies piled up at the main aid crossing point in the south of the territory. Help has been awaited there for months.

But the military and aid agencies both acknowledge that aid deliveries are dangerous because family crime groups steal the trucks. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military directives, estimated that 30 to 40 percent of humanitarian supplies are stolen by members of criminal families.

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

Many aid groups that once used the crossing now say it is too dangerous for their staff to seek help. Aseel Baidoun, senior director of Palestinian Medical Aid, said drivers sometimes have to pay fees to transport their aid from the crossing to Gaza.

He said the Israeli military was “failing to provide an environment conducive to the delivery of sufficient humanitarian goods to Gaza.”

Aid groups also say their warehouses and workers have been attacked by Israeli forces. OCHA says at least 326 aid workers have been killed since the start of the war. It is unclear how many were killed while working.

The United States has not yet indicated how it will respond to low aid levels. Last week, the State Department said Israel must do more.

Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay Washington’s deadline, telling reporters Monday that he was confident “the problem would be resolved.”

The Israeli military announced Tuesday that it would open a fifth humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza, a key U.S. request. But it remains unclear when the Kissufim crossing in central Gaza will be operational.