US won’t impose arms embargo on Israel over Gaza aid

Biden administration says Israel only partially in compliance with demands to expand entry of Gaza aid and end isolation of northern Gaza, but indicates no arms embargo will be imposed.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The deadline imposed by the Biden administration on Israel to comply with its demands to expand the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip and to reduce the use of mass evacuation orders in the coastal enclave expired Wednesday, with the White House appearing to back down from a possible confrontation with Jerusalem over American weapons sales.

On October 13th, senior American officials penned a memorandum to Israeli leaders setting out an ultimatum with a 30-day deadline, insisting that Jerusalem take steps to increase the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip, to reduce the use of mass evacuation orders in Gaza, and to reduce the isolation of the northern Gaza Strip, where IDF forces are currently operating to crush a Hamas insurgency.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that while Israel had not, in the administration’s determination, fulfilled all 15 of the demands issued in the October 13th memo, the U.S. has not “made an assessment that there that the Israelis are in violation of US law.”

Previously, the Biden administration had intimated that failure by Israel to comply with the memo would result in restrictions on arms transfers.

Patel cited a number of steps taken by the Israeli government since October 13th to conform with the Biden administration’s demands.

“Over the past 30 days, Israel has taken a number of steps to address the measures laid out in the letter that Secretaries Blinken and Austin sent earlier in October,” Patel said.

“We continue to be in discussion with our partners in Israel about these steps that they have taken, which they took as a result of U.S. intervention, as well as additional steps that we feel that still need to be taken.”

“Specifically, we have seen the reopening of the Erez crossing. We have seen a new crossing at Kissufim open. As it relates to the Jordanian armed forces corridor, we have seen a waivement of certain customs requirement that humanitarian organizations had previously said was an obstacle.”

“We’ve also seen the expansion of the Mawasi humanitarian zone, and we have seen the institution of periodic operational pauses.”

Patel acknowledged that the flow of aid into Gaza remains below the 350-truck per day goal set by the Biden administration, though the rate has increased since the memo, rising from an average of 37 trucks per day to 45.