The United States government has issued a 30-day ultimatum to Israelis to either improve Gaza’s deteriorating humanitarian aid access or risk losing US military assistance. The call comes at the peak of the Gaza-Israeli war, which has displaced thousands of civilians from their homes and led to the death of dozens.
In a letter dated Sunday and signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the US government sternly warned against further obstructions of US humanitarian assistance to Gaza been withhold by the Israelis.
According to the letter, Israel has denied and impeded close to 90% of the humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza since last month, which has further exacerbated the crisis. Over 1.7 million people have been reportedly displaced into an increasingly congested and narrow coastal area to take refuge as Israel has continued its offensives in Gaza. The letter suggests that the overcrowding situation and lack of essential services to the displaced people is putting them at “high risk of lethal contagion”.
The letter mandates Israel take “urgent and sustained actions” within 30 days to ameliorate the humanitarian deterioration. It further necessitates Israel urgently implementing specific measures to improve aid flow, without which it could have “implications for US policy” as US laws prohibit any forms of military assistance to countries that obstruct the delivery of American humanitarian aid.
Also, the document further asked Israel to end its “isolation of northern Gaza” and ensure there is no official policy of forced civilian evacuation from north to south to ensure that the aid corridors between the two regions are consistently opened for easy delivery of crucial supplies, including food, water, and medical assistance.
The Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has not released an official statement in response to the letter. Recall that the US president, Joe Biden, had earlier urged Israel to cease operations, which has the propensity to exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly ignored that call, insisting that “U.S. threat to withhold some arms would not prevent Israel from continuing its offensive in Gaza.”
He said, “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.”
