Jerusalem — Israel has failed to meet US demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than ever in the 13-month warinternational aid organizations said on Tuesday.

The obstacles facing aid distribution were on display this week. Even after the army gave permission to deliver to the northernmost part of Gaza – virtually cut off from food for more than a month by an Israeli siege – the United Nations said it could not deliver most of it because unrest and Israeli restrictions. troops on the ground.

Famine experts have warned the north perhaps they are already facing starvation.

Meanwhile, in the south, hundreds of aid trucks are sitting on the Gaza side of the border because the UN says it cannot reach them to distribute them – again because of the threat of illegality, theft and Israeli military restrictions.

The Biden administration last month set a deadline that expires on Tuesday for Israel to “get” more food and other emergency aid into Palestinian territory. The administration has warned that failure to comply could trigger US laws requiring it to cut military support as Israel mounts offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has announced a number of steps – although their effect has been unclear. On Tuesday, it opened a new crossing point in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir al-Balah, for aid to enter. It also announced a small expansion of the coastal “humanitarian zone” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. He connected the electricity for a desalination plant in Deir al Balah.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week that Israel had made some progress but it must do more. US officials have not yet said whether they will take any action.

Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday that he was confident “the issue will be resolved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after the re-election of Donald Trump, who was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.

Eight international aid organizations said in their report on Tuesday that “Israel has not only failed to meet US criteria” but has also taken actions “that have dramatically worsened the situation on the ground. especially in northern Gaza. … This situation is in an even more dire state today than it was a month ago.”

The report listed 19 measures to comply with US requirements. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and had only partially complied with four.

The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.

In a letter dated October 13, the US gave Israel 30 days to allow, among other things, a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day; open a fifth passage; allow people in coastal tent camps to move inland before winter; and ensure aid groups access to northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hamper the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Aid levels remain well below US benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has continued laws against UNRWA.

Israel launched a major offensive last month in the north, where Hamas militants are said to have regrouped. The operation killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

Until October and the first days of November, Israel did not allow food into the area, where tens of thousands of civilians remained despite evacuation orders.

Last week, Israel allowed 11 trucks to go to Beit Hanoun, one of the hardest-hit towns in the north. But the World Food Organization said troops at a checkpoint forced the trucks to unload their cargo before reaching shelters in the city.

On Tuesday, COGAT – the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza – announced that it had allowed another delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun a day early. Again, WFP said that although it tried to send 14 trucks, only three reached the city “due to delays in receiving road permits and congestion along the route.” When he tried to deliver the rest on Tuesday, Israel denied him permission, he said.

Aid across Gaza fell in October, with just 34,000 tonnes of food coming in, just a third of the previous month, according to Israeli data.

UN agencies say even fewer actually get through because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness that make it difficult to collect and distribute aid from Gaza.

In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and so far 75 a day in November, according to official Israeli figures. The UN says it has received just 39 trucks a day since early October.

COGAT said 900 aid trucks are uncollected on the Gaza side of the southern Kerem Shalom crossing.

“Before awarding grades, organizations should focus on delivering the aid that awaits them,” COGAT said in response to the aid groups’ report.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said the military was not coordinating movements for aid trucks to reach the stacked goods. “If we’re not given safe passage to go pick it up … it’s not going to get to the people who need it,” she said.

COGAT blamed the October drop on the closure of crossing points for high Jewish holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that started the war. An Israeli official also pointed to theft by Hamas and organized crime families in Gaza. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.

The war began last year when Hamas-led militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 people. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who did not say how many of those killed were militants. About 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps with little food, water or sanitation.

During the war, the United States gave billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, while pushing for more aid to Gaza.

Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his re-election last week.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Former US State Department official Charles Blaha, who led the office tasked with ensuring US military support complies with US and international law, predicted the Biden administration would find that Israel had broken US law by blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.

“It is undeniable that Israel did this,” Blaha said. “They would really have to torture themselves to discover that Israel did not restrict … assistance.”

But he expected the administration to invoke US national security interests and waive restrictions on military support.

“If the past is prologue, no holds barred, then kick the can down the road to the next administration.”

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage at