President Joe Biden’s administration said this week that it will continue to transfer arms to Israel, despite recent criticism on the progress of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that Israel has shown good but limited improvement in allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, and as a result, it will not impose restrictions on U.S. arms transfers to Israel—a measure it had considered a month ago if conditions remained unchanged. Meanwhile, a new report from relief organizations states that conditions in Gaza are now more dire than at any other point in the 13-month conflict.
The U.S. statement regarding arms comes as Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours have killed at least 46 people in Gaza, including 11 who were at a temporary cafeteria within an area designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel, according to medical officials. In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed 18 people in separate strikes across the country on Tuesday.
What the U.S. Is Saying
U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that while recent progress by Israel in terms of aid must be supplemented and sustained, the U.S. has “not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law.”
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said. “We want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.”
AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File/AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File
U.S. Support for Israel
The U.S.—Israel’s primary ally and largest supplier of military aid—made its decision despite international aid groups saying that Israel has not fully met U.S. calls for expanded humanitarian access in Gaza. Experts on hunger have also raised alarms, warning that parts of northern Gaza may already be facing famine conditions.
Last month, the Biden administration set a Tuesday deadline for Israel to significantly increase shipments of food and emergency aid into Gaza or face the potential for reduced military assistance as it conducts offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On November 6, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller criticized Israel’s response to conditions outlined for improving aid deliveries to Gaza, giving it a “fail grade” to meet the requirements set in a letter last month from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to senior Israeli officials.
Report From Relief Organizations
A report published on Tuesday by eight relief groups—including Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children—said Israel had not met the criteria out by the U.S.
“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.
This week underscored the challenges confronting aid distribution in Gaza. Despite the Israeli military authorizing a delivery to northern Gaza—an area largely cut off from food supplies for over a month due to an Israeli siege—the United Nations reported it was unable to deliver most of the aid. Turmoil in the area and restrictions imposed by Israeli forces on the ground hindered distribution efforts.
In southern Gaza, hundreds of trucks loaded with aid remain stalled just across the border. The United Nations says it is unable to access and distribute the supplies due to security concerns, including threats of looting and lawlessness, as well as restrictions imposed by the Israeli military.
