By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States will decide this week whether Israel has made progress toward improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and how Washington will respond, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, as Israel began to lay out their arguments.
President Joe Biden’s administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that the longtime U.S. ally must take action within 30 days on a series of measures or risk imposing restrictions on US military aid.
“This week we’ll make our judgment on the kind of progress they’ve made,” Sullivan told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And then Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, and the president will make judgments about what we do in response, and I’m not going to get ahead of that.”
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that handles Palestinian civil affairs, on Sunday published a list of Israel’s humanitarian efforts over the past six months, “highlighting recent initiatives and detailing plans to maintain support for Gaza as it approaches winter.”
“Through expanded routes, medical assistance, infrastructure improvements and coordination with international partners, COGAT continues to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian efforts aimed at assisting civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the agency said.
The US deadline will expire just days after global food security experts said there is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza as Israel carries out a military offensive against Palestinian Hamas militants. over there.
Israel began its broad military offensive in northern Gaza last month. The United States has said it is monitoring to ensure that Israel’s actions on the ground demonstrate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government does not have a “famine policy” in the north.
On Saturday, COGAT rejected the rare alert from the independent Famine Review Committee, which reviews the findings of the internationally recognized standard known as Integrated Food Safety Phase Classification.
The Israeli agency stated that “all government projections have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground” and that the Israeli military “operates and will continue to operate in accordance with international law to facilitate and facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to Loop”. “
COGAT also said Friday that it is preparing to open another crossing – at Kissufim – into Gaza.
The amount of aid entering Gaza has plummeted to its lowest level in a year, according to UN data, and the UN has accused Israel of hindering and blocking attempts to deliver aid, particularly to northern Gaza.
Responding to the famine warning, the head of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, accused Israel of using famine as a weapon.
“This deprives the people of Gaza of the basics, including food to survive,” Lazzarini wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “What is allowed into Gaza is not enough, an average of just over 30 trucks per day. This is just over six percent of daily needs.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told the Security Council last month that the problem in Gaza was not a lack of aid, saying that more than a million tons had been delivered over the past year. He accused Hamas of hijacking the aid.
Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it was stealing aid and has blamed Israel for the shortage.