US has not assessed Israel is violating law on Gaza aid, will not change policy despite humanitarian groups’ findings

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration has not assessed that Israel is in violation of US law and will not change its policy at this time, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday on the US-mandated 30-day deadline for the Netanyahu government to take specific steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The US statement comes in sharp contrast to the findings of humanitarian aid organizations, who say that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to its worst point since the war began in October 2023.” The situation in northern Gaza in particular has been described as “apocalyptic,” with areas at “imminent” risk of famine.

Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin set a 30-day deadline for the Israeli government to take action on more than a dozen concrete measures to improve the “deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

On Tuesday, a group of eight humanitarian aid organizations jointly said the Israeli government “not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”

Blinken and Austin in their letter warned that a “failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for US policy” under a Biden administration national security memorandum as well as US law. Section 620I of the US Foreign Assistance Act requires the US to halt security assistance to governments who restrict US humanitarian aid.

“We, at this time, have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday.

Patel said that the Israeli government has taken some of the measures outlined in the letter, and argued that they may not have happened without US pressure.

“We’ve seen some progress being made,” he said at a press briefing. “We would like to see some more changes happen.”

“Most importantly, we are going to continue to watch how these steps that they’ve taken, how they are being implemented, how they can be continued to be expanded on, and through that, we’re going to continue to assess their compliance with US law.”

An Israeli official told CNN earlier on Tuesday that the government has been working to provide humanitarian aid throughout the past year, and “responded positively to most American requests, many of which were already underway regardless.”

‘Worst point since the war began’

However, according to the aid organizations, “the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to its worst point since the war began in October 2023.”

There was “non-compliance, significant delays, or backtracking” on 15 of the measures outlined in the Blinken and Austin letter, according to the aid organization’s joint scorecard released Tuesday. There was only “partial or inconsistent implementation” on four of them. None of the measures saw “full or significant progress.”

The scorecard was compiled by Anera, CARE International, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International, and Save the Children. It is “based on the observations and experience of humanitarian organizations on the ground and on available public data and secondary sources.”

The measures that were completely unmet, according to the scorecard, included allowing a minimum of 350 trucks of humanitarian aid per day to enter Gaza and reinstating a minimum of 50-100 commercial trucks per day.

“It’s the sort of lethal combo of no humanitarian assistance and no commercial assistance getting in that is, for the past 30 days, accelerating the deterioration, and that’s a real problem,” said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the vice president of global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps.

“If you’re not having movement on one of those two, then it means that people are not going to have anything to eat. It’s just a very basic equation, right? Nothing to buy, nothing being given, and there’s obviously nothing being really grown or fished or anything locally, and not to mention it wouldn’t ever sustain a population of 2 million,” she told CNN.

They are now receiving reports that “people are not just skipping meals anymore; they’re having a meal once every couple of days, and it’s mostly canned stuff,” she said.

“There’s no fresh food,” Phillips-Barrasso said.

The Israeli government also failed to institute “adequate humanitarian pauses” to allow for humanitarian activities, to rescind “evacuation orders when there is no operational need,” to ensure continuous humanitarian access to northern Gaza, or enhance security for humanitarian sites and movements, according to the scorecard.

According to Israeli authorities and local Palestinian journalists, some humanitarian aid has been delivered to northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun area in recent days – but many displaced Palestinians there were forced out of their shelters by airstrikes and warnings from the Israeli military to head south before they could receive the aid.

“Israeli forces repeatedly attacked humanitarian sites and frontline responders during the 30-day period,” the scorecard said. “At least 14 aid workers have been killed since October 3, including at least four documented during the 30-day period.”

Moreover, despite US warnings in the letter and elsewhere, the Israeli parliament voted to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The State Department spokesperson warned last month that the role UNRWA plays in Gaza “cannot be filled by anyone else.”

Calls to halt arms sales

On Tuesday, a group of US officials who resigned in protest at the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel and the war in Gaza called on the US government to halt weapons sales to Israel for violating laws on humanitarian aid.

“We are calling on President Biden to keep this 30-day promise. To uphold US law. To halt US weapons sales to Israel, to stop the spread of the conflict and look out for America,” members of the group said in a video.

“There is no provision in US or international law that allows extra time to starve people,” said former top State Department official Stacy Gilbert.

The humanitarian scorecard noted that “the effectiveness of international diplomatic efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza hinges on the willingness of the United States and other countries to push Israel to comply with these priorities.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Michael Conte, Mick Krever, MJ Lee, Kylie Atwood, Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder and Irene Nasser contributed to this report.

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