With Tuesday marking the end of the Biden administration’s window for the Israeli government to materially improve the humanitarian response in war-torn Gaza, international aid organisations are condemning the country’s failure to meet US demands and, in some cases, outright worsening the crisis that has devastated Palestinians for the last 13 months.
“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took action that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” eight aid organisations said in a report on Tuesday. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The damning report by Oxfam, Save the Children, MedGlobal, Anera, CARE, Mercy Corps, Refugees International and the Norwegian Refugee Council rates Israel’s progress in complying with the U.S. letter’s humanitarian demands.
Evaluating 19 measures of relief, the organisations’ scorecard found Israel to be noncompliant on 15, partially compliant on four and fully compliant on zero.
“The scorecard is further evidence that systemic impediments on the humanitarian system in Gaza are making a deadly conflict even deadlier,” Save the Children President Janti Soeripto said in a statement. “Our staff and humanitarian peers in Gaza risk their lives every day to help families survive unimaginable conditions. They need the support and serious commitment to protecting innocent lives that international humanitarian law requires.”
In a letter released on October 13, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had told Israel that it had to take tangible steps to reverse the humanitarian crisis in Gaza within 30 days, and that failure to do so would violate international and US laws.
The deadline is up, and the flow of aid into Gaza is the lowest it’s been in more than a year. But, consistent with its handling of Israel’s recent actions, the Biden administration says it will not follow through on its threat to halt arms transfers to Israel.
President Joe Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday to discuss, among other issues, the US deadline for improved humanitarian access.
“We at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, adding that the Biden administration believes the Israeli government has made good but limited progress.
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” he continued. “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.”
The Israeli military — with USS funding, weapons and diplomatic support — launched its Gaza offensive in October 2023, after Hamas militants launched an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, roughly 100 of whom remain in captivity.
Israeli forces remain in Gaza more than a year later. Israel has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 100,000, flattened entire neighbourhoods, displaced 1.9 million people, destroyed water and sewage infrastructure, caused the health care system to collapse, starved families, detained men in alleged torture camps, and bombed areas it had designated as so-called “safe zones.”
Aid groups have also reported on Israeli forces attacking journalists, medical workers and humanitarian aid workers, especially if they are Palestinian.
The Israeli military continues to block most aid from entering Gaza, resulting in the spread of famine and disease, a record number of child amputees, doctors operating on patients without anesthaesia or medical tools, ongoing psychological trauma, and a breakdown of social order.
In October, aid groups said they were only able to distribute 11% of the goods that reached warehouses due to looting and restrictions on movement.
“The entire region is on the edge of a precipice,” the United Nations’ Inter-Agency Standing Committee said in a Nov. 1 joint statement. “An immediate cessation of hostilities and a sustained, unconditional ceasefire are long overdue.”