U.S. Warns Israel of Military Aid Cut if Gazans Don’t Get More Supplies

 

U.S. Warns Israel of Military Aid Cut if Gazans Don’t Get More Supplies

 

The demand from Israel’s closest ally came amid reports that the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has grown still worse in recent weeks.

 

By Michael CrowleyPatrick KingsleyRonen Bergman and Michael Levenson

Oct. 15, 2024

Updated 4:48 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-us-military-aid.html

 

The United States has warned Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies into the war-devastated Gaza Strip within the next 30 days or risk losing military aid, American officials said Tuesday.

 

The warning came in a letter signed by the American secretaries of defense and state that was sent on Sunday to Israel’s defense minister and its minister of strategic affairs. It was confirmed on Tuesday by a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller.

 

Mr. Miller said the amount of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest it had been at any time since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that set off the Israeli invasion.

 

“What we have seen over the past few months is that the level of humanitarian assistance has not been sustained,” Mr. Miller told reporters in Washington. “In fact, it has fallen by over 50 percent from where it was at its peak.”

 

The warning came as the Israeli government told the Biden administration that it would not strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment and oil production sites when it responds to Tehran’s recent missile attack on Israel, officials said. That concession may reduce the immediate likelihood of an all-out war between the two adversaries.

 

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that Israel had agreed to focus its next attack on military targets in Iran. The Biden administration believes that if Israel were to hit oil or uranium enrichment sites, it could set off a dramatic escalation of Middle East hostilities at a time when Israel is already at war with Iran’s regional proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

 

Even if Israel spares Iranian nuclear and oil sites, it could still hit Iranian missile launchers, storage depots and factories that produce missiles and drones, as well as military bases and government buildings, according to two Israeli officials briefed on the planning process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military matters.

 

While no final decision is believed to have been made, the Israeli retaliation for Iran’s missile barrage on Oct. 1 could be large in scale — and possibly prompt Iran to continue the cycle of attacks. And officials said the Israeli pledge to avoid nuclear and oil sites, previously reported by The Washington Post, related only to its next attack against Iran, meaning that it could still hit more contentious targets in the future.

 

“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make