Biden-Harris admin warns Israel over humanitarian aid to Gaza, leaked letter reveals

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel demanding that it improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing crucial security assistance.

The letter was intended to be a private, diplomatic communication and was not intended for the public, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“What we have seen over the last few months is that the level of humanitarian assistance has not been sustained,” he adds: “Ultimately, we have not seen our concerns adequately addressed, which is why the two secretaries sent the letter they made”. Miller warned.

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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tried to calm fears, telling reporters the letter was not intended as a threat. “The letter was only intended to reiterate the sense of urgency that we feel and the seriousness with which we feel the need to dramatically increase humanitarian aid. And this is what you can do with your friend. This is what you can do with your ally And it’s not the first time we’ve communicated this to Israel, but we hope we won’t have to communicate it again.

Some critics countered that the letter was not a threat.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on August 19, 2024. (Prime Minister’s Office)

“I’m not sure what’s worse to consider, that threatening an ally is pre-election political theater necessary to pacify pro-Hamas radical leftists or that it’s actually US policy to cut off arms to Israel if Israel doesn’t agree. feed, feed and finance Hamas,” Richard Goldberg, senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former NSC official in the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.

“Just so we’re clear, this is really what it’s all about: whether Hamas survives by controlling humanitarian aid and its distribution,” Goldberg said.

The letter, which was first obtained by Axios, expressed its “deep concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza” and is particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government, including halting commercial imports and denying or impeding almost 90% of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza in September, are “contributing to an accelerated deterioration of conditions in Gaza.”

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Since the assurances made by Israel last spring, which the letter acknowledges produced significant improvements in the humanitarian situation, the amount of aid delivered to Gaza has dropped by 50% in September, the lowest amount of aid since delivered in any month since the war began.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The letter says Israel has 30 days to “reverse the downward humanitarian trajectory” and stay consistent with its obligations to the US. Failure to comply with these demands, the letter said, would violate existing US law and have serious implications for US national security policy. .

Israel has defended its humanitarian response to the Gaza crisis in a statement released on Monday by COGAT, the army division that deals with aid to Gaza, saying: “Since the beginning of the war , Israel has allowed the international community to bring 54,270 aid trucks to Gaza, transporting 1,064,820 tons of humanitarian aid through various passages, including 38,746 trucks carrying approximately 824,078 tons of food.

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Haifa, Israel, under missile fire from southern Lebanon on September 30, 2024. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The United States must continually evaluate the delivery of humanitarian aid under the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide foreign military financing assistance to Israel. President Biden issued a memorandum in February saying that countries receiving US arms must adhere to international humanitarian law and provide written assurances of their compliance under the laws of war.

The US has increased billions of dollars in security aid to Israel since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel is also the largest recipient of US foreign aid since its founding and has received about $310 billion in economic and military aid. On average, the US provides Israel with over $3 billion in security assistance per year.

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A major component of security assistance includes $500 million annually for joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs, particularly the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow II, which have been instrumental in thwarting rocket and missile attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran since October. 7.

Some of the military aid to Israel since October 7 includes 13,981 M830A1 120mm high-explosive multi-purpose anti-tank tracer (MPAT) rounds, 500 aircraft deliveries and 107 sea shipments to Israel of over 50,000 tons of ammunition and weapon systems. , according to the Congressional Research Service.

Shelter tents erected near collapsed buildings in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on October 1, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

The United States also announced that it would send military personnel and initial components needed to operate the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to Israel to bolster the country’s security.

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“The deployment of the THAAD battery to Israel underscores America’s commitment to the defense of Israel and to defending Americans in Israel from any ballistic missile attack by Iran,” the press secretary said of the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, in a statement.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of hostilities following the terror group’s massacre of Israelis last October. About 1,200 Israelis were massacred and 257 were kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. All 2.1 million people in Gaza are in urgent need of humanitarian aid and 1.9 million people are internally displaced, according to the International Rescue Committee.