On October 22, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Chuck Kennedy/US State/ZUMA Press

In mid-October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a strongly worded letter to senior Israeli officials. In the memo, they made it clear that the United States was aware of Israel’s blocking aid in northern Gaza. They demanded that Israel improve humanitarian conditions by letting in 350 trucks of food aid a day, ending the forced evacuation from northern Gaza and opening more crossings into the territory. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the UN ambassador to the US, said such measures were needed to combat a “policy of hunger”. If Israel fails to do so within 30 days, Blinken and Austin threatened, the US would consider enforcing arms transfer laws that prohibit arms from being sent to nations that block humanitarian aid.

Yesterday, thirty days later, Biden administration officials said they would not enforce their own deadlines. Military aid to Israel will not end, despite the fact that even data from Israel own government notes that the amount of aid entering Gaza fell between September and November.

At a State Department news conference on November 12, officials could not answer reporters’ questions about whether or not Israel had been able to meet the 30-day deadline. “At this time we have not made an assessment that the Israelis are violating US law,” department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

In their October 13 letter, Blinken and Austin said the Israeli government must reaffirm “that there will be no Israeli government policy of forcibly evacuating civilians from northern to southern Gaza.” This also did not happen. Instead, an Israel Defense Forces general told the media last week that civilians who fled the north they will not be allowed to return to their homes.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees humanitarian aid in Gaza, told reporters Tuesday that “Israel has allowed a daily average of 76 trucks over the past 30 days.” The United Nations said the number was closer to 50 – far fewer than the 350 the US said would be needed to prevent widespread starvation and a small fraction of the 500 aid trucks that entered the Gaza every day until October 2023.

On Tuesday, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department spokesman Patel why the letter contained so many specifics if vague assurances of “improvement” in Gaza would be enough to satisfy the United States.

“Why did you bother putting in 350 trucks a day if it didn’t matter?” Lee asked.

“I won’t talk about it,” Patel said.

“We didn’t give the Israelis 30 days, you did,” Lee replied. “And now those 30 days are up, and all the metrics you posted don’t count.”

“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said. “We want to see the overall humanitarian situation improve, and we believe some of these steps will enable the conditions for that to continue to progress.” Some conditions, he said, are improving: a new border crossing has been opened in central Gaza, and a limited number of people have been allowed to move inland instead of being trapped on the beach in tents in winter.

However, on the same day eight humanitarian organizations issued a report demonstrating that, for aid workers and international observers on the ground, the Biden administration’s conditions for continued military aid have not been met.

“Israel has not only failed to meet US criteria that would indicate support for the humanitarian response, but has simultaneously taken actions that have dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza,” the eight organizations, including Oxfam and MedGlobal, wrote . “This situation is in an even worse state today than it was a month ago.”

However, the State Department has not indicated that it will follow through on its threats to suspend arms shipments: and in fact, just last week, Israel signed a $5 billion contract to 25 new fighter jets produced in the United States as part of ongoing support.