The United States announced Tuesday that there will be no significant policy shift towards Israel, at the conclusion of a 30-day U.S. deadline for improvement in humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza.
“We have seen some progress being made, we’d like to see some more changes happen. We believe that, had it not been for U.S. intervention, these changes may not have ever taken place,” said Patel.
The demands and the deadline were laid out in a joint letter from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, delivered Oct. 13. If Israel wants to continue to qualify for foreign military financing under U.S. law, Blinken and Austin wrote, at least 350 trucks per day of aid must be allowed to enter the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
The letter also called on Israel to provide heightened security for humanitarian sites, and an increase in the number of humanitarian pauses to its military operations.
One month later, a daily average of just over 30 trucks a day are being let into Gaza, according to Philippe Lazarini, commissioner general of the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.