US decides there will be no consequences for Israel after issuing threats over aid to Gaza

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the US has decided that Israel is not flouting US law by withholding food and medicine to Palestinians in Gaza. 

On Tuesday, the 30-day deadline for Israel to prove that it had stepped up humanitarian relief for Palestinians to keep receiving US weapons, the State Department announced there was “no change in US policy to announce today”.

Instead, what reporters heard at the daily briefing appeared aspirational. 

“The hope is that the operational changes that have been made through some of these things, things, for example, just the waiving of the customs requirement in the Jordanian corridor, or the reopening of certain crossings, the additional internal routes that we've seen open up - the hope and the desire is that things like that will make it possible for an additional increase in humanitarian aid,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said. 

When repeatedly challenged on whether Washington was giving Tel Aviv “a pass”, Patel countered by insisting the US is “constantly assessing and evaluating” Israel’s actions, “and should we see something that is inconsistent with US law, we will take appropriate action”.

Earlier this year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and a State Department bureau alerted the Biden administration that Israel was subjecting humanitarian aid destined for Gaza to "arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments".

'Across the board, the Israeli government has failed to comply with US & international law on relief in Gaza. It is past time to halt arms transfers'

- Jeremy Konyndyk, Refugees International

However, a month after the USAID and State Department memo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a report to Congress with a different conclusion, ignoring the memo.

Then, one year into the war, amid both domestic and international pressure - and with a US presidential election just weeks away - Washington said it wanted to reassess the situation.

A 13 October letter addressed to then-Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer from their US counterparts said Israel must allow 350 aid trucks a day into Gaza over the next 30 days. Most aid organisations estimate that around 700 trucks a day are needed to meet everyday needs.

In the second half of October, the World Food Programme said just 58 trucks a day were being allowed into Gaza and that over 90 percent of the population within the Strip “faces acute levels of food insecurity”.

The letter also called for winter preparations that included allowing those who were forcibly displaced to “move inland” and an end to forced displacement from northern to southern Gaza. 

But since then, Israeli forces have sealed off northern Gaza and announced on the day of the US election, on 5 November, that its former residents would not return to their homes. 

'The Gaza scorecard'

Eight non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam, Anera, Save The Children, and Refugees International, released what they called the "Gaza scorecard" on Tuesday, tracking the conditions the Israeli government should have met to continue receiving American weapons. 

“Across the board, the Israeli government has failed to comply with US & international law on relief in Gaza. It is past time to halt arms transfers,” Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, posted on X. 

“Our joint report assesses Israel's compliance across every metric we could measure,” he said. “Unsurprisingly, given the pattern of willful obstruction over the past year, Netanyahu's government fully complied with none.”

Whether it was the allowance of trucks through the four major crossings into Gaza and the necessary opening of a fifth one or the rescinding of "evacuation" orders when there was no operational need, Israel received a failing grade on the scorecard. 

It was not even able to reinstate a minimum of 50-100 commercial trucks per day, the assessment showed, and there was certainly no consistent aid access to northern Gaza, which has been under a deadly siege for more than a month.

Read the full scorecard report here: https://t.co/A24Z8OyN5Y

— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) November 12, 2024

Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross were also not granted access to any Palestinian detainees held by Israel, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was not allowed to continue its work unimpeded and without threats. 

All the above were metrics included in the letter from Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. 

“This scorecard… provides one concrete way for the ICC and ICJ to assess the questions of the will and intent of the Israeli government with respect to humanitarian aid obstruction and collective punishment,” Konyndyk said on X. 

‘For your legacy’

For several of the State Department resignees over the past year, the most egregious waivers were those afforded to Israel. 

On Tuesday, alongside their resignee colleagues from across the Biden administration, the group released a video urging the president to cease weapons transfers to Israel, at the very least to save his legacy. 

“Israel's systematic restriction of food, water and medicine to civilians in dire need, which has been recognised by international tribunals and countless experts, is part of an ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people,” former State Department diplomat Hala Rharrit said in the video. 

'It's not too late for you to do the right thing. For the Palestinian people, for the hostages... for Muslim Americans, for Jewish Americans'

- Biden administration resignees to the president

“Joe Biden's administration has repeatedly put Israel's interests over the interests of the American people, even at the expense of not enforcing our own laws,” added Josh Paul, the former director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. 

“That's why I resigned,” the group collectively said in the video. 

Members of the group said they resigned because they couldn't bear to watch the administration "bankroll the devastation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people" while distorting and denying facts on the ground to evade US and international law.

They added that US actions sparked hatred against communities domestically while undermining the country's standing around the world.

“You are still the president,” said Alex Smith, a former senior advisor with USAID, addressing Biden.

“It's not too late for you to do the right thing. For the Palestinian people, for the hostages, for humanitarian aid workers, for Muslim Americans, for Jewish Americans, for Arab Americans,” the group said. 

“For your legacy.” 

However, for his remaining time in office, the Biden administration now seems to have abandoned any boat-rocking diplomatic role in the region, instead focusing on the handover to the incoming team for President-elect Donald Trump.