Israel confirmed in an official letter sent to the Biden administration in mid-November that it has no intention of forcibly displacing Palestinians from northern Gaza or starving the civilian population there, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Walla! on Wednesday.
Despite Israel's assurances, senior Biden administration officials are deeply concerned that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will not allow tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who fled northern Gaza, particularly from Jabaliya, to return.
Officials also expressed fears that Israel's commitments would become irrelevant once the Trump administration takes office and the threat of suspending US military aid is no longer on the table.
The Israeli letter was sent in response to an ultimatum issued by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on October 13 regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The situation in northern Gaza was one of the key concerns raised by the Biden administration in the letter.
The deadline for the ultimatum expired last Wednesday. Had the Biden administration determined that Israel had not taken sufficient steps to increase aid to Gaza, the US could have suspended weapons shipments to Israel under American law.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel stated in mid-November that, "at this time," the Biden administration does not believe Israel is violating US law but stressed that this assessment is ongoing.
The letter, dated last Wednesday, was sent a day after Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer visited Washington and briefed Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on steps Israel is taking to address US concerns over Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
The 23-page letter, signed by Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz and addressed to Blinken and Austin, included a lengthy list of actions Israel has taken over the past month or plans to take in the coming weeks to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Two senior Biden administration officials noted that Israel would not have taken these steps without the American ultimatum and the threat of suspending military aid.
"Israel emphasizes that it does not have a policy of forcibly evacuating civilians from anywhere in Gaza, including northern Gaza," Katz and Dermer wrote in the letter.
The Israeli ministers claimed that the IDF has not issued evacuation orders to Palestinian civilians but has merely warned civilians in specific areas ahead of military operations. They stressed that civilians who chose to remain in these areas were considered in operational planning, including the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In practice, the Israeli military operation in Jabalya displaced 55,000 Palestinians, with hundreds—many of them women and children—killed in the operation, including in airstrikes on residential buildings.
Israel not starving Gaza's civilian population
Katz and Dermer also rejected claims that Israel is implementing a plan to starve northern Gaza to force Hamas militants to surrender.
"The claim that the generals’ plan was approved by political and military leadership or is being implemented by Israel is entirely false," they wrote. They emphasized that Israel does not restrict the entry of humanitarian aid anywhere in Gaza, "certainly not in an attempt to force civilian evacuations." In reality, during the operation in northern Gaza, the access of aid trucks was limited, and very little assistance reached Jabaliya.
Dermer and Katz wrote in the letter that the number of aid trucks entering Gaza daily rose to 200 during the first two weeks of November. They noted that Israel's security cabinet ordered the IDF to increase the number to 250 trucks daily and ensure sufficient aid reaches northern Gaza.
The US has demanded that Israel allow 350 aid trucks into Gaza daily. Katz and Dermer argued in the letter that the United Nations’ inability to deploy sufficient trucks to the crossings is the reason for the lower numbers, but they stressed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the IDF to reach the 350-truck target as soon as possible.
The Israeli ministers highlighted that Israel ceased allowing aid through the private sector because it benefited Hamas and strengthened the organization.
"If aid through the private sector proves insufficient, Israel will not oppose allowing humanitarian goods through private-sector channels in the future, provided Israeli interests are not harmed," they wrote.
Katz and Dermer revealed in the letter that Israel is considering reopening the long-closed Karni crossing to facilitate containerized aid shipments—a move aimed at reducing looting of aid deliveries.
They also noted that the IDF is exploring a joint project with the Jordanian military and the UN World Food Program to establish a logistics center near the Karni crossing that would enable 200 additional trucks to enter Gaza daily.
The letter emphasized that Israel has begun implementing a UN winterization plan for Gaza, which includes repairing key roads for aid delivery, providing winter-specific aid such as tents, and conducting vaccination campaigns for winter illnesses in Gaza.
They added that the Israeli security cabinet had instructed the IDF to develop a plan to allow Palestinians sheltering in the humanitarian zone in Mawasi along Gaza’s coast to move eastward to additional humanitarian zones as winter approaches. This was a key US demand of Israel.
Dermer and Katz wrote to Blinken and Austin that the IDF had taken steps to avoid harming aid workers, including equipping 100 UN vehicles with tracking devices to facilitate coordination with aid convoys and redesignating aid sites in IDF systems to prevent them from being targeted.
One of the US demands was for Israel to allow the International Red Cross to visit prisons and detention centers to examine the treatment of prisoners from Gaza.
In the letter, Dermer and Katz stated that Israel would not permit such visits due to the Red Cross's "violation of principles of neutrality and confidentiality" and its handling of the issue of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
They added that the Israeli security cabinet approved the establishment of an independent team, consisting of former Israeli judges and two foreign observers, to visit detention facilities and prisons.
"Israel is prepared to immediately begin talks with the US on the principles of this independent team’s operations and to discuss the possibility of direct American involvement in the matter," they wrote.
Another major US concern was new Israeli laws against UNRWA that would significantly restrict its operations in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Dermer and Katz wrote that Israel wants to discuss with the US "how to smoothly transition to other UN agencies" before the laws take effect in less than three months.
They revealed that the Israeli security cabinet instructed the Foreign Ministry to propose alternatives to UNRWA in Gaza and the West Bank.
The ministers also wrote that the Jerusalem Municipality plans to replace UNRWA in providing education and social services to tens of thousands of Palestinians in east Jerusalem.
They suggested that the Palestinian Authority could take over these services in the West Bank.