The US has written to Israel’s government giving it 30 days to urgently boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or face having some US military assistance cut off.
The letter amounts to the strongest known written warning from the Biden administration to its ally, coming as Israel’s attack on northern Gaza has seen mass forced displacements of civilians to the south.
The letter – sent two days ago – was signed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. It says the US has “deep concern” about “the deteriorating humanitarian situation”.
It adds that Israel last month denied or impeded nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between north and south Gaza.
It states that evacuation orders have forced 1.7 million people into a narrow coastal strip where they are at “high risk of lethal contagion”.
The letter demands “urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory”.
It says Israel “must, starting now and within 30 days” act on a series of concrete measures to boost aid supplies, adding that failure may “have implications for US policy”.
It cites US laws which can prohibit military assistance to countries that impede delivery of American humanitarian aid.
It calls on Israel to end the “isolation of northern Gaza” by reaffirming that there will be no “no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians” from north to south.
The contents of the letter, reported by the journalist Barak Ravid, have been verified by the BBC.
