POLITICIANS AND ACTIVISTS have condemned Israel’s failure to meet a swathe of demands by the US just one day out from a deadline that was meant to see American funding for the IDF cut.
Israel today announced the opening of an additional aid crossing into Gaza, but agencies who know the conditions on the ground said it’s far from enough.
Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of war following Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on 7 October 2023.
The US last month warned Israel to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk a reduction in funds.
A day before the deadline, the Israeli military said it opened the Kissufim crossing “as part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid” to Gaza.
So far, the US has not committed to making good on its promise to cut funding, sparking outrage among Pro-Palestine protestors and peace activists.
Spokesperson for the US Department of State Vedant Patel was challenged on the soft response to Israel’s actions, categorised as ethnic cleansing by some.
He said: “We’d like to see some progress being made. We would like to see some more changes happen. We believe that, had it not been for US intervention, these changes may not have ever taken place. But most importantly, we want to see continued progress.”
Asked if there would be any consequence for Israel not meeting the deadline, Patel said: “I certainly don’t have a change in US policy to announce today … [but] we are constantly going to assess the circumstances on the ground.”
Journalist Matt Lee replied: “But you guys are the ones that gave them a 30-day deadline. It’s hard to see your answers today as anything other than giving them a pass.”
Patel said he wouldn’t view it as such, because “no one” is saying the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “rosey”.
Among America’s then-demands was for Israel to allow a minimum of 350 aid trucks into Gaza per day for the 30 days. Israel has averaged 37 per day – a tenth of what was ordered.
Patel said his government would “raise” the issue with Israel. In response to other questions about the specific failings of Israel, Patel said he wasn’t “going to get into a specific tit-for-tat on every item in the letter,” and that the letter was only a “suggestion of steps that we think that they should take”.
The IDF today published video footage showing lorries loaded with sacks and pallets entering Gaza.
But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and eight humanitarian groups said Israel was still not doing enough to get aid in.
The eight organisations including Oxfam and Save The Children said Israel “failed to comply” with US demands – “at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza”.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023,” they said in a joint statement.
Oxfam has compared Israel’s actions to “ethnic cleansing”.
The strong words come on foot of a scorecard released by Oxfam and seven other organisations assessing Israel’s progress against the US demands.
“Oxfam has found that Israel has utterly failed to comply with its ally’s demands and that failure has come at enormous cost to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
They called on the Irish government o pass the Occupied Territories Bill, which had the doors closed on it as Taoiseach Simon Harris called the general election and dissolved the Dáil.
Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs inister Micheál Martin said he wants the bill enacted if he’s in the next government, but that the wording required a number of ammendments to make it constitutional.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warned Israel last month it had 30 days to ramp up aid deliveries to Gaza or risk losing some military assistance from its chief arms supplier.
The US letter, dated 13 October, was sent ahead of the US presidential election won by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.
Blinken said today that the US will not withhold weapons from Israel.
However, government spokesman David Mencer said that Israel took the letter “extremely seriously” and was “willing to get as much aid as possible through”.
The administration has only about nine weeks left in office before Trump has promised takes the reins.
Meanwhile, high-profile leftist politician Bernie Sanders is trying to drum up support among fellow Senators for a resolution that would block the US from continuing to send arms to Israel.
Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 43,665 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said today that at least 14 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours.
The Israeli army announced the deaths of four soldiers in northern Gaza, bringing its losses in the territory to 376 since the start of ground operations on 27 October 2023.
With reporting by AFP
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