WASHINGTON — An Associated Press review of U.N. and Israeli data shows that, halfway through the Biden administration’s 30-day ultimatum to Israel to increase the level of humanitarian aid allowed to Gaza or risk possible curbs on U.S. military funding, Israel is falling far short .

Israel also missed several other deadlines and demands outlined in the Oct. 13 letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The period from mid-November after the US election could serve as the latest test of President Joe Biden’s willingness to control his close ally, who has ignored repeated US calls to protect Palestinian civilians during the war against Hamas.

In their letter, Blinken and Austin demanded that the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza be improved, saying that Israel should allow at least 350 trucks a day carrying urgently needed food and other supplies. According to the latest UN figures, as of the end of October, an average of 71 trucks were entering Gaza per day.

Blinken said that the State Department and the Pentagon are closely monitoring Israel’s response to the letter.

“Progress has been made, but it is not enough, and we are working every day to ensure that Israel does what it needs to do to ensure that this aid reaches the people who need it in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters.

“Taking a truck to Gaza is not enough. “It is vital that the things they brought with them are effectively distributed in Gaza,” he said.

Blinken and Austin’s letter marked one of the harshest stances taken by the Biden administration in a year full of calls and warnings to Israel to reduce harm to Palestinian civilians.

Support for Israel is a key issue for many Republican voters and some Democrats. That makes any decision by the Biden administration to restrict military funding to a U.S. ally a fraught decision in the tight presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Aid agencies say Israel’s escalating military campaign and aid restrictions, especially in hard-hit northern Gaza, have prevented all food and other supplies from reaching settlements since mid-October. International observers say this could set the stage for famine in the coming weeks or months.

And despite US objections, Israeli lawmakers this week voted to effectively ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. Governments, the UN and aid agencies around the world say cutting UNRWA would tear apart aid networks trying to deliver food and other supplies to people in Gaza.

Amber Alayyan, Médecins Sans Frontières’ Gaza medical program manager, called the move “a disaster.”

Humanitarian officials are deeply skeptical that Israel will significantly increase aid to civilians in Gaza, despite the U.S. warning, or will do anything if the Biden administration does not.

At this point in the war, “none of this has happened,” said Scott Paul, deputy director of the humanitarian organization Oxfam.

We were told repeatedly and repeatedly by Biden administration officials that “there are processes in place to assess the situation in Gaza on the ground” and that some action has been taken to enforce U.S. law, “but they have not been done over and over again.” It happened,” Paul said.

Before the war, an average of 500 trucks a day were bringing aid to the region. Aid groups said this was the minimum amount needed for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, who have often been ripped from their homes.

Since the conflict began, there has not been a month in which Israel has approached this figure, which peaked at 225 trucks a day in April, according to Israeli government figures.

As Blinken and Austin sent their letter this month, concerns were growing that aid restrictions were starving civilians. The number of aid trucks Israel allows into Gaza has fallen since last spring and summer, falling to an average of 13 per day in early October, according to UN figures.

According to UN figures, by the end of the month this number had risen to an average of 71 trucks per day.

Once aid supplies arrive in Gaza, groups still face obstacles in distributing aid to warehouses and then to people in need, the organizations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this week. These include Israel’s slow pace, Israeli restrictions on shipments, lawlessness and other obstacles, aid groups said.

Data from COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza, shows aid has fallen below a third of its levels in September and August. 87,446 tons of aid entered the Gaza Strip in September. 26,399 tons entered in October.

A senior COGAT official, Elad Goren, said last week that aid deliveries and distribution in the north were mostly limited to Gaza City.

Asked why aid had not been delivered to other parts of the north, such as Jabaliya, a crowded urban refugee camp that Israel had attacked, he said the population there had been evacuated and those remaining had been given “sufficient aid” from the previous months. .

In other areas, such as Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, Goren falsely claimed there was “no population left” there.

COGAT declined to comment on the standard in the US letter. He said he was following government directives regarding aid to Gaza. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused Hamas of plundering aid.

Oxfam’s Paul said no aid had reached residential areas in northern Gaza, with only small amounts reaching Gaza City.

Alayyan, of Médecins Sans Frontières, said Israel has “made no progress whatsoever” in providing humanitarian support to hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza, especially since the US ultimatum.

The Israeli government appeared to have exceeded another deadline set in Austin and Blinken’s letter. It called on Israel to establish a high-level channel for US officials to express concerns about reported harms to Palestinian civilians and to hold a first meeting by the end of October.

Such a channel, which the USA requested repeatedly during the war, was not created on the last day of the month.

The United States is by far the largest provider of arms and other military aid to Israel, including nearly $18 billion during the war in Gaza, according to a study conducted for Brown University’s Costs of War project.

The Biden administration paused the planned 2,000-pound bomb shipment to Israel last spring, citing concerns about civilians in Israel’s attack.

In a formal review in May, the administration concluded that Israel’s use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law, but said wartime conditions prevented officials from determining that with certainty in specific attacks.