Israel not violating law on Gaza aid: US

The US government has concluded Israel is not currently impeding assistance to Gaza, despite what international aid groups have to say.

The United States said that Israel was not violating US law on the level of aid entering Gaza even as aid agencies said it was still not enough.

Israel had announced the opening of an additional aid crossing into Gaza, just hours before the deadline set by outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk a cut to military assistance.

Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of war following Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel setting a deadline of November 13 to comply with US law on permitting humanitarian assistance.

Displaced Palestinians from Beit Hanoun following Israeli army evacuation orders sit on the side of a main road upon their arrival in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Asked if Israel had met the demands, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said: “We have not made an assessment that they are in violation of US law.

“The overall humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be unsatisfactory. But in the context of the letter, it’s not about whether we find something satisfactory or not; it’s what are the actions that we’re seeing.

“These actions that we have seen, we think that these are steps in the right direction,” he said.

The US finding comes despite Israel not meeting a series of metrics set explicitly in the letter, including allowing a minimum of 350 trucks per day into Gaza.

Patel said the administration was “constantly assessing and evaluating” even after the deadline.

But it has only about nine weeks left in office before president-elect Donald Trump moves into the Oval Office.

In a statement, Hamas said the US decision was a “a confirmation of the full partnership of President (Joe) Biden’s administration in the brutal war of genocide against our people”.

Meanwhile eight international aid groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, have co-signed a report which states the situation in Gaza is worse than ever.

“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 reads.

“That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”

On Friday the independent Famine Review Committee issued a rare alert stating Famine Review Committee warned that “famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.”

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Originally published as Israel not violating law on Gaza aid: US