WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday that Israel has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and that it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it has done before. was threatened a month ago if the situation had not improved. Aid groups say conditions are worse than ever In 13 months of war.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters: The progress made to date should be supported and sustained but “at this time we have not made an assessment that the Israelis have violated U.S. law.” This requires recipients of military assistance to comply with international humanitarian law and not obstruct the provision of such assistance.

“We do not allow Israel,” Patel said, adding that the steps taken by Israel have not yet made a serious enough difference. “We want to see the overall humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow conditions to continue to improve.”

The decision by the United States, Israel’s key ally and largest arms provider, came even as international aid organizations said Israel had failed to comply with U.S. demands that it be allowed greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. Hunger experts warned the north may already be experiencing famine.

The Biden administration set a deadline last month that would expire on Tuesday. Israel will “increase” more food and other emergency aid to the Palestinian territories, or the possibility of a reduction in military support as Israel continues offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Obstacles to aid distribution were on this screen this week. Even after the Israeli military authorized deliveries to the northernmost part of Gaza, which was virtually deprived of food for more than a month due to the Israeli siege, the United Nations said it could not deliver much of it due to turmoil and restrictions. Israeli soldiers are on the ground.

In the south, hundreds of truckloads of aid are sitting on the Gaza side of the border because the UN says it cannot reach them to distribute aid; again due to lawlessness, theft, and the threat of Israeli military restrictions.

Dozens of people waited in long lines to receive food packages distributed by UN agencies in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday.

“We hope that the world will sympathize with us because of this trouble we are in,” Salim Abu Mansi said. “Life is poverty and the country is getting worse every day.”

A new gate was opened in the center of Gaza, outside the city of Deir al-Balah, to allow aid to enter. He also announced a small expansion of the coastal “humanitarian zone” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltered in tent camps. It connected electricity to the desalination plant in Deir al-Balah. However, its impact was uncertain.

Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters on Monday that he was confident “the issue will be resolved.” Biden administration may have less influence Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, wins presidential election.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Washington on Monday with Ron Dermer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest aide, to discuss the steps Israel is taking and emphasized: “It is important to ensure that these changes lead to a real improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.” ” ”The State Department said on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday, but they have not spoken publicly about the aid issue. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the United States knows how dire the conditions are and will continue to discuss with Israel the additional steps it needs to take.

Eight international groups said in a report that the country had also “dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, especially in Northern Gaza. … This situation is much worse today than it was a month ago.”

While the report listed 19 measures regarding compliance with US demands, it was stated that Israel did not comply with 15 of them and only partially complied with four of them. It was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.

In an October 13 letter, the United States gave Israel 30 days to, among other things, allow at least 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day; open the fifth gate; allowing people in coastal tent camps to move inland before winter; and providing access for aid groups to northern Gaza. They also called on Israel to stop legislation that would hinder the activities of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Aid levels remain well below US benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted and Israel continues its intervention. Laws against UNRWA.

Israel launched a major attack last month It is in the north where Hamas militants are said to be regrouping. The operation killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

Throughout October and the first days of November, Israel did not allow food to enter the area where tens of thousands of civilians remained, despite evacuation orders.

Last week, Israel allowed 11 trucks to go to Beit Hanoun, one of the hardest-hit cities in the north. But the World Food Organization said soldiers at a checkpoint forced the trucks to unload their cargo before reaching the shelters.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza, said on Tuesday that new deliveries of food and water to Beit Hanoun were allowed a day in advance. WFP said that while it tried to send 14 trucks, only three trucks were able to reach the city “due to delays in obtaining movement permits and crowds on the route.” It was stated that when he tried to deliver the rest on Tuesday, Israel did not allow it.

According to Israeli data, aid to all of Gaza dropped in October, with only 34,000 tons of food entering; this figure was only a third of the previous month.

UN agencies say much less aid is getting through because of Israel’s restrictions, fighting and lawlessness, making it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.

According to Israel’s official figures, an average of 57 trucks a day entered Gaza in October and an average of 75 trucks a day in November. The UN said it had received only 39 trucks a day since the beginning of October.

COGAT said 900 truckloads of aid were waiting uncollected on the Gaza side of the southern Kerem Shalom crossing point.

In response to the aid groups’ report, COGAT said: “Organisations should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them before giving grades.”

UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said the military did not coordinate the arrival of aid trucks to the stacked cargo. “If we’re not given safe passage to go and get it… it’s not going to get to the people who need it,” he said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants raided southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250. There are still nearly 100 hostages in Gaza, and a third of them are believed to be dead.

Israeli bombardment and land occupation have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Although authorities do not say how many of them are militants, they state that more than half of them are women and children. Nearly 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, with hundreds of thousands of people crammed into squalid tent camps with little food, water and sanitary facilities.

United States billions of dollars rushed to military aid During the war, he was pressuring Israel to provide more aid to Gaza.

Trump promises to end wars in the Middle East without telling how. Netanyahu said they have spoken three times since Trump won the White House last week.

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Frankel was reporting from Jerusalem and Magdy was reporting from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman and Khan Younis in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa Shurafa in the Gaza Strip and Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.

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