US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that he would restrict military aid to Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as he spoke with reporters in Israel prior to his departure for Saudi Arabia.
“I will follow the law,” he said when pressed if he would uphold National Security Memorandum 20, which makes military assistance contingent on compliance with international law and international humanitarian law.
The United States had warned Israel in April that it risked being out of compliance with the law, but continued with military aid after Israel took steps to improve the delivery of aid in Gaza. In October, it reissued that warning.
Blinken raised the issue during his conversations in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“Since that letter, yes, we’ve seen progress, but it’s not enough,” Blinken said.
There have been improvements at the Erez crossing and progress in the “reanimation of the Jordanian corridor and the opening of a fifth crossing,” he said, adding that the challenge is also the distribution of aid within Gaza.
“We have a list of things that we are going through, one by one, systematically with our Israeli counterparts to make sure that they follow through,” he said, as he assured reporters that the US was tracking these improvements.
The measure, however, is whether Palestinians in Gaza receive what they need, he said.
He acknowledged that the situation had improved but then deteriorated.
“That’s why we’re looking at” what “has to be done in a sustained way,” he said.
The future of Gaza
This intense focus on humanitarian aid is happening even as the US is “trying to get to an end of the conflict in Gaza, bring the hostages home, even as we’re dealing with Lebanon, even as we’re dealing with Iran,” he said.
Blinken also rejected calls by those on the Israeli Right to rebuild Israeli settlements in Gaza, to replace the 21 Jewish communities the government evacuated in 2005.
“We reject any Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. I said so in Tokyo a year ago,” Blinken stated. “It’s been US policy; it will remain US policy. And it’s also, to the best of my understanding, the policy of the Israeli government. That’s what I heard from the prime minister, who is the authoritative word on this.”