(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration warned Israel that it must improve an “increasingly dire” humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip within 30 days, suggesting the US may be compelled by law to cut the flow of US weapons if the situation doesn’t improve.
The warning came from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a joint letter dated Oct. 13 that was addressed to Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
The letter emphasizes that a US law requires countries receiving American weapons to “facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede” humanitarian assistance provided or supported by the US. The two officials called for Israel to allow a minimum of 350 trucks of aid into Gaza daily, enhance security for aid sites and the movement of humanitarian workers and end the isolation of north Gaza, among other moves.
“We didn’t know it was going to get out,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said of the letter in a briefing on Tuesday. “It was meant to be a private correspondence.”
The letter, reported earlier Tuesday by Israel’s Channel 12 and by Axios, is one of the sternest and most specific warnings yet from the US to Israel about the situation in Gaza. The US is Israel’s No. 1 arms supplier, and Washington’s support is crucial for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war plans in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as in Israel’s broader rivalry against Iran.
While a previous warning to Israel in April resulted in an uptick in aid, the amount of assistance flowing into Gaza has dropped by more than 50% in the months since then, according to the letter. September’s deliveries were the lowest of any month during the past year, it said.
The Biden administration has supported Israel with billions of dollars in weapons since Hamas — designated a terrorist group by the US — attacked Israel on Oct. 7 of last year, killing 1,200, kidnapping 250 others and sparking a war in Gaza that has killed more about 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health authority in the coastal strip.
US officials have constantly pushed Israeli officials to limit civilian casualties and increase the amount of aid flowing to desperate Palestinians, but the administration has so far halted only one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs — a move designed to limit a previous Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Biden administration has been under pressure domestically ahead of the November election, and looks increasingly unable to shape events in the Middle East as Israel shifts its focus from Gaza to a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Some in the Democratic party have called for the US to halt shipments of offensive weapons to Israel entirely in order to pressure Netanyahu into halting the conflicts.
Asked on Tuesday about the consequences if Israel doesn’t provide more aid to Gaza, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said “I’m not going to speak to that today.”
Miller said he hoped that the letter would prompt Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, as in April, and said it wasn’t the first or last time the two governments would communicate on the issue.
“We need to see further changes by the government of Israel,” he said.
Blinken and Austin wrote that US officials have been “particularly concerned” by Israel stopping commercial shipments of goods, “burdensome and excessive” restrictions on dual-use items and “onerous” customs requirements for humanitarian staff and shipments.
Combined with looting and general lawlessness in Gaza, the Israeli actions are “contributing to an accelerated deterioration in the conditions” there, they wrote.
--With assistance from Roxana Tiron and Jason Kao.
(Updates with Pentagon, State Department comments starting in fourth paragraph)
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