According to AP, Israel risks facing multiple US sanctions, including restrictions on military aid, for failing to promptly meet certain demands to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days.
On November 4, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel had “failed” to meet the conditions for improving aid provision to Gaza that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin set out in a letter sent in mid-October.
“As of today, the situation has not changed significantly,” Mr. Miller added to reporters. “We have seen improvements in some of the metrics, but if you look at the recommendations that were made in the letter — those have not been met.”
AP cited one of the conditions in the letter as Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks carrying essential supplies including medicine and food to enter Gaza to support people affected by the war. But according to the latest UN figures, an average of only 71 trucks entered Gaza each day as of the end of October.
Senior US officials, including Mr Blinken and Mr Austin, have been in direct contact with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to urge and emphasize the importance of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Meanwhile, on November 4, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it would cancel a 1967 agreement with the United Nations to facilitate the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Israel said that UNRWA “is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip, not the solution.”
UNRWA was established by the United Nations in 1949 to provide services such as health, education and humanitarian aid to millions of people in areas of the Middle East, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
However, the relationship between Israel and UNRWA has always been tense and has worsened since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out, and Israel has called for UNRWA to be dissolved and accused UNRWA of having many Hamas members.
A day before the 2024 US presidential election, President Joe Biden's administration said that supporting Israel is an issue of concern to many voters and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also a factor exploited by candidates.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been competing for votes from Muslim, Arab-American and Jewish voters in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
