State Department officials said they want Israel to enable dramatic increases in humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.
“We have seen Israel make changes before, and when they make changes, humanitarian assistance can increase,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday after the letter’s release. “We know it can be done, we know that the various logistical, bureaucratic obstacles can be surmounted, and so it is incumbent upon the government of Israel to surmount those challenges, and get the assistance in.”
The letter is an implicit admission that the U.S. assesses Israel’s actions in Gaza violate American law, analysts and former officials say. It also notes that an Israeli failure to improve Gaza’s spiraling situation could impact some future weapons sales under an arms-transfer policy which requires the recipient country to provide “credible and reliable” written assurances that it will use U.S.-provided arms in line with international humanitarian law.