US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza

US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza
The Biden administration says Israel has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved. (Reuters/File)
Short Url
Updated 12 November 2024
Follow

US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza

US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza
  • State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained
  • “We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that “we want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve”

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration says Israel has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but “we at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law.” It requires recipients of military assistance to adhere to international humanitarian law and not impede the provision of such aid.
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that “we want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.”
The decision from the US, Israel’s key ally and largest provider of arms and other military aid, comes despite international aid organizations declaring that Israel has failed to meet the US demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.
The Biden administration last month set a deadline expiring Tuesday for Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory or risk the possibility of scaled-back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top national security adviser, Ron Dermer, in Washington a day earlier to go over the steps that Israel has taken since Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned in mid-October of possible repercussions if the aid situation had not improved in 30 days.
Blinken stressed “the importance of ensuring those changes lead to an actual improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, including through the delivery of additional assistance to civilians throughout Gaza,” the State Department said.
The obstacles facing aid distribution were on this display this week. Even after the military gave permission for a delivery to the northernmost part of Gaza — virtually cut off from food for more than a month by an Israeli siege — the United Nations said it couldn’t deliver most of it because of turmoil and restrictions from Israeli troops on the ground.
Hunger experts have warned the north may already be experiencing famine.
Meanwhile, 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 the aid — again because of the threat of lawlessness, theft and Israeli military restrictions.
Israel has announced a series of steps — though their effect was unclear. On Tuesday, it opened a new crossing in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir Al-Balah, for aid to enter. It also announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. It connected electricity for a desalination plant in Deir Al-Balah.
US officials haven’t said whether they will take any action. President Joe Biden met Tuesday at the White House with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said a “major objective” for the US should be reining in Iran and its proxies. Herzog also called for the return of the hostages taken from Israel in the Hamas attack that started the war, to which Biden said, “I agree.”
A day earlier, Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters that he was confident “the issue would be solved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after Donald Trump won the presidential election — he was a staunch supporter of Israel in his first term.
Eight international aid organization said in their report Tuesday that “Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria” but also took actions “that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza. … That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
The report listed 19 measures of compliance with the US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four. The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
In an Oct. 13 letter, the US gave Israel 30 days to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing; allow people in coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Aid levels remain far below the US benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.
Israel launched a major offensive last month in the north, where it says Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.
Through October and the first days of November, Israel allowed no food to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.
Last week, Israel allowed 11 trucks to go to Beit Hanoun, one of the north’s hardest-hit towns. But the World Food Organization said troops at a checkpoint forced its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching shelters in the town.
On Tuesday, COGAT — the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza — announced it allowed a new delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun a day earlier. Again, the WFP said that while it tried to send 14 trucks, only three made it to the town “due to delays in receiving authorization for movement and crowds along the route.” When it tried to deliver the rest Tuesday, Israel denied it permission, it said.
Aid into all of Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, only a third of the previous month, according to Israeli data.
UN agencies say even less actually gets through because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness that makes it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.
In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 75 a day so far in November, according to Israel’s official figures. The UN says it only received 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October.
COGAT said 900 truckloads of aid are sitting uncollected on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.
“Before the organizations give out grades, they should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them,” COGAT said in response to the aid groups’ report.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said the miliary was not coordinating movements for aid trucks to reach the stacked-up cargos. “If we are not provided a safe passage to go and collect it ... it will not reach the people who need it,” she said.
COGAT blamed the drop in October on closures of the crossings for the Jewish high holidays and memorials marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many of those killed were militants. Around 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.
The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war, while pressing it to allow more aid into Gaza.
Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel during his previous term, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since his reelection last week.


US vetoes UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza

US vetoes UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza
Updated 10 sec ago
Follow

US vetoes UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza

US vetoes UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza
UNITED NATIONS: The United States vetoed a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza on Wednesday because it is not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas in Israel in October 2023.
The UN Security Council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.
The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Hezbollah chief says response to Israeli strikes on Beirut will be on ‘central Tel Aviv’

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location, November 20. (Reuters)
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location, November 20. (Reuters)
Updated 46 min 47 sec ago
Follow

Hezbollah chief says response to Israeli strikes on Beirut will be on ‘central Tel Aviv’

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location, November 20. (Reuters)

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a speech broadcast Wednesday that the response to recent deadly Israeli strikes on Beirut would be on “central Tel Aviv.”
“The response must be expected on central Tel Aviv,” Qassem said, after deadly strikes on three central Beirut districts in recent days, one of which killed Hezbollah’s spokesman Mohammed Afif and four members of his media team.
More to follow...


Israel says not fighting Lebanese army, after soldiers killed

Israel says not fighting Lebanese army, after soldiers killed
Updated 20 November 2024
Follow

Israel says not fighting Lebanese army, after soldiers killed

Israel says not fighting Lebanese army, after soldiers killed
  • “We emphasize that the (Israeli army) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the military said
  • “The (army) is looking into reports regarding soldiers of the Lebanon Armed Forces who were injured during the strike”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Wednesday it was fighting the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, not the Lebanese army, after the latter said four of its soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes.
“We emphasize that the (Israeli army) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organization and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces,” the military told AFP in a statement.
The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed a soldier Wednesday, a day after it said three other personnel died in a strike on their position in the town of Sarafand, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the southern border.
South Lebanon has seen intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants whose group holds sway in the area.
Israel’s military said it struck “a terrorist infrastructure site in which a number of Hezbollah terrorists were operating in the area of Sarafand” on Tuesday night.
“The (army) is looking into reports regarding soldiers of the Lebanon Armed Forces who were injured during the strike,” it added, but did not refer to the other deadly incident mentioned by the Lebanese army.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.


Israel insists on right to act against Hezbollah in any deal to end fighting

Israel insists on right to act against Hezbollah in any deal to end fighting
Updated 20 November 2024
Follow

Israel insists on right to act against Hezbollah in any deal to end fighting

Israel insists on right to act against Hezbollah in any deal to end fighting
  • Lebanon’s government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty
  • Hochstein told reporters the talks had made “additional progress”

BEIRUT: Israel’s defense minister says his country insists on the right to act militarily against Hezbollah in any agreement to end the fighting in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty, complicating efforts to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted into all-out war in September.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Wednesday that “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the (Israeli military’s) right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”
Lebanese officials mediating between Israel and Hezbollah have called for a return to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between the sides.
It calls for Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon patrolled by UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops.
US envoy Amos Hochstein, who has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, held a second round of talks on Wednesday with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who has been mediating on their behalf.
Hochstein told reporters the talks had made “additional progress,” and that he would be heading to Israel “to try to bring this to a close, if we can.” He declined to say what the sticking points are.
Israeli strikes and combat in Lebanon have killed more than 3,500 people and wounded 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The war has displaced nearly 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including some foreign farmworkers, have been killed by attacks involving rockets, drones and missiles. Hezbollah began firing on Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
That attack killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and another 250 were abducted. Around 100 hostages remain inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Lebanese army said in a statement a soldier was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit his vehicle on the road linking Burj Al-Muluk and Qalaa in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports.
The night before, three soldiers were killed by an airstrike that targeted an army post in the town of Sarafand, near the coastal city of Saida.
Wissam Khalifa, a resident of Sarafand who lives next to the army post and was injured in the strike, said he was shocked that it was targeted.
“It’s a safe residential neighborhood. There is nothing here at all” that would present a target, he said. “Regarding the martyred soldiers, I don’t even know if there was a gun in the center. Why did this strike happen? We have no idea.”
The Lebanese army has not been an active participant in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah over the past 13 months, but more than 40 soldiers have been killed in the conflict.
Altogether, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, the vast majority of them in the past two months.


US envoy to travel to Israel in bid to seal Hezbollah ceasefire

US special envoy Amos Hochstein talks to reporters in Beirut on November 20, 2024. (AFP)
US special envoy Amos Hochstein talks to reporters in Beirut on November 20, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 20 November 2024
Follow

US envoy to travel to Israel in bid to seal Hezbollah ceasefire

US special envoy Amos Hochstein talks to reporters in Beirut on November 20, 2024. (AFP)
  • “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein said in Beirut

BEIRUT: US envoy Amos Hochstein said he will travel to Israel on Wednesday to try to secure a ceasefire ending the war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group after declaring additional progress in talks in Beirut.
Hochstein, who arrived a day earlier in Beirut, said he saw a “real opportunity” to end the conflict after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments.
“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said after his second meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, endorsed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah to negotiate.
“So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein said.
The diplomacy aims to end a conflict that has inflicted massive devastation in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah in September, mounting airstrikes across wide parts of the country and sending in troops.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Hezbollah, still reeling from the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, has kept up rocket fire into Israel, including targeting Tel Aviv this week. Its fighters are battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.

Although diplomacy to end the Gaza war has largely stalled, the Biden administration aims to seal a ceasefire in the parallel conflict in Lebanon before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“We are going to work with the incoming administration. We’re already going to be discussing this with them. They will be fully aware of what we’re doing,” Hochstein said.