Israel fails US deadline to boost humanitarian help for Gaza — aid groups

Israel has failed to meet United States demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the war-ravaged Gaza, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old offensive, international aid organisations said.

The Biden administration last month called on Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into Gaza, giving it a 30-day deadline that was expiring Tuesday. It warned that failure to comply could trigger US laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel continues its brutal attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday he was confident “the issue would be solved.”

Tuesday's report, authored by eight international aid organisations, listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.

An October 13 letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on Israel to, among other things: allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing into the besieged enclave; allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland ahead of the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

"Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza," the report said. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”

The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller last week said Israel had made some progress, but needs to do more to meet the US conditions. “What's important when you see all of these steps taken is what that means for the results,” he said.

Israel launched a major offensive last month in northern Gaza. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands. Israel has allowed almost no aid to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.

Aid to Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, or less than half the previous month, according to Israeli data.

In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, according to Israeli figures, and 81 a day in the first week of November. The UN puts the number lower, at 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October.

Israel's bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. Around 90 percent of the population has been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.

The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war and has shielded it from international calls for a ceasefire while pressing it to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.