US Threatens To Withdraw Military Assistance To Israel Over Low Aid Supplies In Gaza

The United States (US) has threatened to withdraw military assistance if Israel fails to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza.

Biden, who communicated the US position to Israel, its key ally, in a letter, gave the Israeli government 30 days to comply or have some of its military support Withdrawn.

Israel has continued to bombard northern Gaza causing huge damages and mass forced displacements of civilians in the area.

However, The UN World Food Programme (WFP), said not enough aid is getting into the north of Gaza, despite 12 truckloads of relief materials recently delivered.

In a letter sent two days ago, signed by the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the US expressed “deep concern” about “the deteriorating humanitarian situation” in Gaza.

It adds that Israel last month denied or impeded nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between north and south Gaza, adding that evacuation orders have forced 1.7 million people into a narrow coastal strip where they are at “high risk of lethal contagion”.

The US therefore demands “urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory”.

It says Israel “must, starting now and within 30 days” act on a series of concrete measures to boost aid supplies, adding that failure may “have implications for US policy”.

It cites US laws which can prohibit military assistance to countries that impede delivery of American humanitarian aid.

It calls on Israel to end the “isolation of northern Gaza” by reaffirming that there will be no “no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians” from north to south.