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The U.S. has issued a stark ultimatum to Israel, warning it must relax restrictions on the flow of aid into and around Gaza lest it face being cut off from arms imports. The threat, delivered in a letter penned by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, constitutes Washington’s strongest warning to Israel over the worsening humanitarian situation in the Palestine enclave.
Washington’s top diplomat cited the strict controls Israel is imposing, including ‘burdensome and excessive’ restrictions on import materials and the denial of most humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza. Blinken and Austin demanded concrete action be taken within 30 days, including enabling a minimum of 350 trucks to enter Gaza per day, instituting pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery and rescinding evacuation orders to Palestinian civilians when there is no operational need.
‘Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for U.S. policy… and relevant U.S. law,’ the letter concluded, citing a section of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits military aid to countries that impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It comes at a time when the threat of escalation in the Middle East appears at an all-time high.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday roundly rejected the notion of a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon as the IDF ramped up bombing raids on Beirut . Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister this morning warned UN chief Antonio Guterres that Tehran is ready to deliver a ‘decisive and regretful’ response if Israel attacks the Islamic republic in retaliation for a barrage of missiles launched earlier this month.
The letter from the White House marks a noticeable shift in U.S. support for Israel which until now has largely remained ironclad. Israel says it is following international law in its operations aimed at rooting out Hamas militants hiding in tunnels and among Gaza’s civilian population, but has faced mounting criticism over eye-watering death tolls and the sordid humanitarian situation its military campaign has created. Washington has frequently pressed Israel to improve conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel.
But the Biden administration has mostly declined to impose restrictions on the billions of dollars of military aid shipped to Israel, even after previous warnings over its conduct in the war were not heeded. The only significant restriction was implemented earlier this year when Biden placed on hold the delivery of a shipment of 2000lb bombs to Tel Aviv. But the restriction was lifted swiftly and has not been repeated since.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken also sent a letter in April demanding from Israel improvements in aid access. Miller said Israel at the time made changes that led to 300-400 aid trucks entering Gaza per day but that number had since fallen by more than 50 per cent. ‘We very much want to see changes not wait for 30 days, but happen immediately,’ Miller said.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the letter sent this week ‘was not meant as a threat’ but reiterated the urgency of increasing humanitarian assistance in Gaza. In addition to the Foreign Assistance Act, the letter also cited a National Security Memorandum issued by President Biden in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.
But the White House is balancing its criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, having announced just two days ago it was sending 100 U.S. troops and advanced THAAD anti-missile batteries to bolster Israeli air defences. Meanwhile, an Israeli official in Washington said the letter had been received and was being reviewed. ‘Israel takes this matter seriously and intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts,’ the official said.
The letter also proposed a new channel for the U.S. to ‘raise and discuss civilian harm incidents’ with Israel, with Miller declaring that the IDF was not taking sufficient steps to reduce the impact of its military campaign in Gaza on the civilian population. ‘You have to look no further to understand that than the really horrific results over the weekend,’ Miller said. That was a reference to an Israel missile attack early on Monday that was captured in videos, which could not be independently verified, that appeared to show Palestinians burning alive inside a hospital tent.
The Israeli military said it struck militants operating from a command centre inside a hospital compound, accusing Hamas of using civilian facilities such as hospitals for military purposes, which Hamas denies. Miller was also highly critical of Israel’s continued bombing of targets in Lebanon amid the ongoing operation against Hezbollah. ‘We have made clear that we are opposed to the campaign the way we’ve seen it conducted over the past weeks’ in Beirut, he told reporters yesterday.
But Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that he would not consider a ceasefire with Hezbollah until the militants retreat north from the border with Israel to create a buffer zone. There appears to be little prospect of such a scenario materialising, with Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem threatening to expand the scope of the group’s missile strikes across Israel in a defiant speech yesterday. ‘Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place’ in Israel, he said.
Early this morning, Israel’s military reported around 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the country’s north. Hezbollah also said it launched ‘a large salvo of missiles’ at the town of Safed. Meanwhile, Israel’s military bombed several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was put out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.
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