Israel has missed US deadline to boost Gaza aid, UN agency says

The main UN aid agency in Gaza says Israel has failed to meet a US deadline to boost aid to the territory or risk a reduction in American military aid.

Last month, in a strongly worded letter, the US secretary of state gave Israel an ultimatum of 30 days to ensure more aid trucks reached Gaza daily. The deadline expires on Tuesday.

The amount of aid getting into Gaza is at its lowest level in a year, the UN says. A UN-backed report recently warned that there was an imminent likelihood of famine in northern Gaza, where hardly any aid has entered in the past month.

Israel says it has substantially increased the amount of aid getting into Gaza, and accuses aid agencies of failing to adequately distribute it.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) says, over the past, month the average number of trucks getting into the strip is just over 40 trucks per day.

Israel disputes Ocha's figures and blames the UN for failing to deliver aid.

It says hundreds of pallets of supplies are waiting to be picked up by aid agencies on the Gaza side of the border and says some aid trucks are being looted by armed men.

The UN rejects that.

It says it is Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power to facilitate the safe passage of aid inside Gaza.

It stresses that it cannot distribute aid if Israel’s military operations mean it is too dangerous.

For more than a year Israel has crossed most of America’s red lines.

Much of the death and destruction was caused by US weapons, given to Israel in order the help the fight against Hamas after the 7 October 2023, attack.

But in the dying days of the Biden Presidency and with more than 43,000 Palestinian lives lost, it’s unlikely the White House will put its foot down and cut off arms supplies.