The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has deteriorated further over the past month, according to an assessment by aid groups, despite demands made by the Biden administration that Israel take specific steps to improve the situation within 30 days or risk jeopardizing the ongoing supply of U.S. arms.
A scorecard issued by eight aid organizations—including Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and Oxfam—found that there has been no improvement on most of the metrics laid out in an Oct. 13 letter that the Biden administration sent to the Israeli government.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has deteriorated further over the past month, according to an assessment by aid groups, despite demands made by the Biden administration that Israel take specific steps to improve the situation within 30 days or risk jeopardizing the ongoing supply of U.S. arms.
A scorecard issued by eight aid organizations—including Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and Oxfam—found that there has been no improvement on most of the metrics laid out in an Oct. 13 letter that the Biden administration sent to the Israeli government.
Overall, the report concludes that the situation in Gaza has only declined during the 30-day period set out in the letter. While most benchmarks were marked for noncompliance, others were listed as partially implemented.
“Israel’s actions failed to meet any of the specific criteria set out in the U.S. letter,” the report said. “Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”
Tuesday marks the letter’s deadline for the Israeli government to take concrete steps to halt the spiraling catastrophe in Gaza or risk a review of U.S. arms deliveries under a memorandum issued by the Biden administration that says recipients of U.S. weapons must not impede the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The White House, Defense Department, and State Department did not respond to requests for comment on the aid groups’ findings. The Israeli Embassy in Washington also did not provide a comment.
The Biden administration has yet to announce its final assessment of whether Israel has adequately complied, but it has recently signaled that the country has not done enough to meet the demands. On Nov. 4, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the situation in Gaza “has not significantly turned around,” noting that the stipulations laid out in the letter had not yet been met.
It is unclear if the White House will impose an arms embargo or other repercussions on Israel if it is found to not have complied—or how much leverage Biden now has over the actions of the Israeli government with a new administration set to take the White House in January, following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the recent U.S. presidential election.
Despite Israel allowing a temporary surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza between May and August 2024, September saw the lowest volume of aid supplies allowed into the enclave since March of this year. Around 1.84 million Palestinians across the Gaza Strip face high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations, including nearly 133,000 people facing catastrophic food insecurity. That number is expected to almost triple by April 2025.
“The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence,” the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the U.N.’s highest-level humanitarian coordination forum, wrote in November. Acute malnutrition in Gaza is at levels 10 times higher than before the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023. Last Friday, a U.N.-backed panel warned that famine in northern Gaza is “imminent” and that action is needed “within days, not weeks.”
Yet Israel has been slow to respond. The Biden administration’s letter stipulated that 350 trucks of food and assistance be allowed into Gaza daily, which is below the 500 vehicles that entered daily before the war began.
According to the humanitarian groups’ assessment—which was drafted five days before Tuesday’s deadline—an average of 42 trucks a day entered the enclave during the review period.
Data from an Israeli military unit responsible for overseeing government activities in the West Bank and Gaza shows that a total of 1,789 trucks entered Gaza in October—an average of almost 58 per day.
Commercial deliveries of food have also come to a “complete halt,” further straining food supplies and driving up prices for the little that remains, said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, one of the groups involved in preparing the report. “Our staff are reporting there is almost nothing in the markets to buy, and what is there is completely out of reach.” According to the report, Israel has failed to reinstate a minimum of 50 to 100 commercial trucks daily.
On Monday, hours before the Biden administration’s deadline expired, the Israeli military announced that it would expand the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza to include field hospitals; tent compounds; shelter supplies; and provisions of food, water, medicine, and medical equipment. Despite being a designated safe zone and Israel having ordered Gaza residents in other areas to evacuate there, Israeli attacks have repeatedly hit al-Mawasi.
Israeli officials maintain that their forces only target Hamas militants and that they continue to take steps to avoid civilian casualties. More than 43,500 people in Gaza have been killed since the conflict began, though local authorities believe the true number is likely much higher. Last Friday, the U.N. human rights office confirmed that nearly 70 percent of those killed were women and children.
Experts worry that Israel’s decision last week to end cooperation with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in January 2025 will only worsen these conditions; allowing UNRWA access to Gaza was a key benchmark in Biden’s letter.
The continued throttling of aid into the besieged enclave comes after 13 months of war, displacement, and food insecurity that have already taken a steep toll on Palestinian civilians, who are now heading into their second winter of the war amid warnings of an imminent famine.
“This is really the tipping point,” said Phillips-said. “You’re looking at a situation that could tip and unravel very, very quickly.”
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