The U.S. government signaled that Israeli authorities have taken some steps this week to improve humanitarian conditions in the embattled Gaza Strip after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns in a letter about the situation.
On Oct. 15, the U.S. government confirmed that Austin and Blinken contacted their Israeli counterparts to warn that U.S. support for Israel could be impacted if Israeli officials didn’t make a greater effort to ensure that aid could flow to civilians in the Gaza Strip while it battles Hamas—an internationally designated terrorist organization.
At an Oct. 16 press briefing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “We have seen some improvement in the last few days” following Austin and Blinken’s warning letter on Oct. 13.
In particular, Miller said Israeli authorities had reopened an aid delivery route between Jordan and northern Gaza, allowing 50 trucks with food, water, and other humanitarian supplies to reach that area on Oct. 15.
He said Israeli forces have also opened an access route within the Gaza Strip, allowing aid deliveries entering the southern end of the territory to travel north.
Miller also said Israeli authorities had approved new warehouses within the territory to help the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations with their aid distribution efforts. He said the U.S. government now has an understanding that Israeli authorities will also waive customs declaration requirements for the U.N. and other humanitarian groups for 12 months to allow those organizations to more easily bring supplies to the Gaza Strip.
He described the actions of the Israeli authorities as good initial steps to improve conditions for civilians after more than a year of fighting.
“Of course, the proof will be in the pudding ultimately, and we want to see them take additional steps,” Miller said. “And we want to see, ultimately, the results change. And the results will be more trucks coming in, more food getting in, more water getting in, and civilians having the basic needs that they require to go about their daily lives.”
The Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip are in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in southern Israel, which left 1,200 people dead and about 250 others taken hostage. Since then, Israeli forces have sought to eradicate Hamas and to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
The Gaza Health Ministry assesses that more than 42,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the fighting began. Exact casualty figures cannot be independently verified at this time. The Gaza Health Ministry does not differentiate between combatants and noncombatants but has said that a little more than half the dead are women, children, and the elderly.
U.S. officials have said that the letter Austin and Blinken authored was meant to be kept private. They only began to address the communication after copies of the document leaked.
Miller and other U.S. officials have avoided offering specifics about what consequences the U.S. government may impose if Israel doesn’t take sufficient steps to improve the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Photographs of Austin and Blinken’s Oct. 13 letter, posted online by an Axios reporter, revealed the two U.S. officials warning that Israel would need to make improvements within 30 days. Should Israel fail to do so, the U.S. officials said, there may be “implications for U.S. policy under NSM-20 and relevant U.S. law.”
Austin and Blinken sent their letter amid reports that Israeli leaders are considering a new plan to defeat Hamas. The plan, drafted by retired Israeli generals and dubbed the “Generals’ Plan,” calls for Israeli forces to give civilians a deadline to leave designated areas of northern Gaza. Those who remain in those cordoned areas would then be deemed lawful combatants and would risk being targeted by Israeli strikes or cut off from food, water, and other essential supplies.
“The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
She said the United States is continuing to monitor reports that Israeli forces have already issued evacuation orders in areas of northern Gaza.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, this week, denied that the evacuation orders in northern Gaza signaled that Israeli forces had begun to implement the “Generals’ Plan.”
“We have not received a plan like that,” Shoshani said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs for additional comments about the letter from Austin and Blinken. Neither ministry responded by publication time.
