President Joe Biden's administration has concluded that in Israel is not currently obstructing aid to Gaza and is therefore not violating US law, the State Department said on Tuesday. However, Washington admitted that the humanitarian situation in Palestine remains difficult, reported "Reuters", quoted by News.bg.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a letter dated October 13, provided their Israeli counterparts with a list of concrete steps Israel must take within 30 days to address the worsening situation in Gaza. Failure to follow these steps could have possible consequences on US military aid to Israel, the letter said.
On Tuesday, as the deadline specified in the letter passed, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel repeatedly declined to say whether the criteria had been met. He said Israel had taken steps to respond to the demands and that Washington would continue to assess the situation.
"We have seen some progress. We would like to see more changes. We believe that had it not been for US intervention, these changes may never have happened,'' Patel said, adding that Washington would continue to monitor Israel's compliance with US law.
Eight international aid groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said in a report that Israel had failed to comply with the demands by Tuesday's deadline.
In a statement later on Tuesday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, criticized the Biden administration's claim that Israel had taken steps to improve the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
The assessment is "confirmation of President Biden's full partnership in the brutal genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip,", Hamas said. The group again accused Washington of providing political and military cover for Israel and shielding it from accountability.
Biden, whose term ends soon, has offered strong support for Israel since gunmen led by Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, more than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a Nov. 4 briefing that despite Israel's measures to increase access to aid, results on the ground in Gaza are not good enough.
Blinken, in a meeting with Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Monday, also stressed the need for Israel to take further steps.
Patel declined to say why Washington chose to base its assessment on Israel's measures to address the problems, rather than results on the ground, which US officials have repeatedly said will be their measure.
On Tuesday, Patel said Israel had taken some steps, including reopening the Erez crossing, lifting certain customs requirements and opening additional supply routes into Gaza.
COGAT, Israel's military agency that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, published on Sunday a list of Israeli humanitarian efforts over the past six months, "highlighting recent initiatives and outlining plans to maintain support for Gaza as winter approaches".
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon welcomed the State Department's statement. "We are working very closely with our allies in Washington," he told reporters. "We did a lot. We have been working very hard to support humanitarian needs in Gaza."
"It is challenging... because on the other side you have "Hamas". So even if we allow trucks to pass through the checkpoints, "Hamas" steals the trucks and sometimes we can't guarantee the results," he added.
The US deadline came just days after global food security experts said there was a "high probability that famine is imminent" in parts of northern Gaza as Israel conducts a military offensive against Hamas militants in the area.
For more than a month, Israeli forces have pushed deeper into northern Gaza, surrounding hospitals and shelters and displacing new waves of people in an operation they say is aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping.