Israel misses US deadline for boosting Gaza aid, US says it does not intend to pursue consequences

Last month, the United States gave Israel a 30-day deadline to significantly increase the aid entering the Gaza Strip. Israel missed the deadline on Tuesday. 

The flow of aid remains minimal into the war-torn strip, where Palestinians face a humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli aggression. 

Northern Gaza in particular, where residents are besieged and infrastructure is devastated by a ground incursion Israel launched in early October, has been almost entirely cut off from the supply lines.

But despite the US introducing the deadline for Israel in the wake of its invasion of the north, the US does not intend to impose any consequences on Israel for ignoring it, as a state department spokesperson indicated on Tuesday.

In a letter to Israel on October 13, using the strongest tone the US has deployed with its ally since the start of the war on Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly said Israel needed to allow a daily minimum of 350 aid trucks into the Strip.

The target figure remained far below the pre-war flow of 500 aid trucks a day, but would have been a major boost over the few trucks that have been allowed in during the recent months.

Yet, according to data from UNRWA, an average of only 37 trucks entered Gaza daily over the course of October, and Israel did not take any moves to improve the flow of aid into Gaza, according to UNRWA Senior Emergency Coordinator Louise Wateridge, who spoke to the media on Tuesday.

“This is the lowest daily average since the third week of October 2023 when the Israeli authorities allowed the first aid trucks to come in after the war started,” the UN agency said.

Wateridge stressed the extent of the humanitarian crisis amid the lack of supplies in Gaza. “People are starving in some areas. People are very hungry. They are fighting over bags of flour,” she explained.

When confronted on Tuesday in the State Department's daily press briefing about Israel missing the deadline, the deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, Vedant Patel, avoided directly saying that Israel missed the deadline and was clear in stating that there will not be “a change in US policy” toward Israel as a consequence.

Instead, Patel highlighted instances that he insisted represented Israel meeting some of the requests outlined by a letter sent by Blinken to the Israelis, such as reopening the Erez crossing, opening a new crossing at Kissufim and opening additional delivery routes within Gaza, among other minor developments. “We at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law,” Patel insisted, adding that the US continues to assess the situation and engage with the Israelis to see how the steps it asked for to increase aid are being implemented.