U.S. tells Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation or risk aid, reports say

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel must take urgent steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action involving U.S. military aid, according to news reports on Tuesday.

“We are writing now to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X.

The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Israel’s government also could not be immediately reached for comment.

The reports come as Israeli forces expand operations into northern Gaza amid ongoing concerns about access to humanitarian aid throughout the enclave and civilians’ access to food, water and medicine.

The United States last week told the UN Security Council that Israel needs to address urgently “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries.

The secretaries’ letter cited Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act, which restricts military aid to countries that impede delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.

It also cited a National Security Memorandum that U.S. President Joe Biden issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of U.S. weapons does not violate U.S. or international law.

U.S. officials earlier this year said Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using U.S.-supplied weapons during its military operation in Gaza.

(Reporting Phil Stewart, Humeyra Pamuk, Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)