The United States State Department said it would not limit the weapons it provides to Israel, saying it could not reach “an assessment” that it was only working to allow adequate aid to be provided to the area Israel bombs. More than 13 months.

In mid-October, the United States said Israel had 30 days to alleviate the humanitarian crisis it was causing in Gaza. accepted The humanitarian situation in Gaza remained dire, but he said there would be no ban on further arms sales to Israel to allow the war to continue.

As winter approaches and the current siege imposed by the Israeli army on all of Gaza shows no signs of easing, residents and aid agencies say they fear the worst is to come.

‘It’s not about specific steps’

In its Oct. 13 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the State Department appeared to address some concerns about the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s unflinching support for the Gaza war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanded, among other things, a written commitment that Israel would not encircle northern Gaza in line with what is commonly referred to as the “General’s Plan.”

Netanyahu reportedly gave such assurances verbally but publicly refused to fulfill them.

The letter also calls on Israel to allow at least 350 trucks of aid to enter Gaza every day, to open the fifth crossing, to allow people trapped in Israeli-imposed coastal camps to move inland before winter, to allow aid agencies to enter Gaza’s suffering north. An appeal was also made to allow it. a siege within a siege and a halt to the implementation of recent legislation preventing the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in the Strip.

Eight international aid organizations (Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children) warned on Tuesday that Israel did not meet “any of the specific criteria set out in the US letter.”

That evening, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel announced to journalists and, by extension, the two million people stranded in Gaza that the United States would not take any action against Israel: “It’s not about specific steps.”

specific pain

“The situation is now beyond hopeless,” UNRWA senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge wrote in a message from northern Gaza.

“There are no words left to describe the misery and pain inflicted on people here. People are struggling for a sack of flour. Families… begging for water. “There is absolutely no humanity here,” he said.

Conditions in Gaza are desperate.

In addition to killing more than 43,700 people, Israel has forced nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population to flee their homes to face the daily realities of hunger and disease in ruined camps that it frequently bombs.

The UN said unprecedented suffering was compounded when Israel reduced the number of aid trucks it allowed into the blockaded area in October to an all-time low.

Since October, Israel has further increased difficulties in aid distribution and divided the region into two; An estimated 69,000 people north of the Netzarim Corridor, the Israeli siege line, have been denied access to the assistance they need to live.

The UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee found that the entire population of northern Gaza “is at risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”

Aid workers in Gaza told Al Jazeera that conditions were slightly better in the south, where the disease is spreading, food is limited and thousands of families are huddled together in terrible housing conditions.

“We need more assistance, we need more access, we need more crossings, we need more humanitarian response teams on the ground to sustain this response and enhance this response,” Wateridge said from Gaza.

Specificity of response or non-response

Despite thousands of displaced families taking shelter there, Israel has made some moves in recent weeks to slightly increase aid and expand the “humanitarian zones” it imposes and frequently bombs.

Apparently leaving things to the last minute, Israel’s security cabinet met on Tuesday, a US deadline, to approve measures to comply with US requirements.

At that meeting, some ministers argued that such efforts were not needed because they expected new US President Donald Trump to be “unlikely to impose any arms embargo on Israel, especially in his first days in office.”

“The cabinet is made up of people who favor the ‘voluntary exodus’ of people in Gaza,” said Mairav ​​Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group, a euphemism some cabinet members often use to refer to forced displacement to make way for illegal immigrants. He referred to the statement. Israeli settlements.

“This (security cabinet effort) was an interim measure to prevent (US President Joe) Biden from imposing further restrictions (on Israel). But it turned out that this was not the case,” Zonszein concluded.

Red lines ignored

Throughout the 13 months of the war in Gaza, the United States continued to supply Israel with weapons while Israel ignored U.S. warnings and expressed concerns, even those regarding the killing of its own citizens.

An investigation by the Reuters news agency in October found that senior US officials warned the Biden administration about possible Israeli war crimes within days of the start of the war a year ago.

However, the United States continued to emphasize its unwavering support for Israel.

In September, a senior US official Netanyahu reportedly warned against invading Lebanon, which Israel did the following month. So far, approximately 3,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

Certain laws were violated

The United States is “aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in violation of Article 3(e) of the Genocide Convention (and) the United States’ own Genocide Convention Implementation Act,” potentially exposing Washington to both its own law and It pushes people to violate international law and international humanitarian law. Human rights lawyer Francis Boyle told Al Jazeera.

However, although the US did not implement the measures specified in the October ultimatum, it warned Israel at the UN against the “forced displacement” or “starvation policy” of the population in northern Gaza.

No consequences were mentioned.