By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. president’s lawmakers Joe BidenThe Democratic Party told him on Friday that they believe there is sufficient evidence to show that Israel has violated US law by restricting humanitarian aid flows to war-ravaged Gaza.
A letter to Biden signed by 86 House Democrats said Israel’s aid restrictions undermined Israel’s assurances that the country complied with a provision of the US Foreign Assistance Act, which requires recipients of US-funded weapons to to uphold humanitarian law and allow free flows of weapons. American aid.
Such written assurances were mandated by a national security memorandum Biden issued in February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning whether Israel was enforcing international law in its operations in Gaza.
The lawmakers said the Israeli government had resisted repeated US requests to open sufficient sea and land routes for aid to Gaza, and cited reports that it had failed to bring in enough food to prevent famine. impose “arbitrary restrictions” on aid and impose an inspection system. which hampered supplies.
“We expect the government to ensure that Israel complies with existing laws and takes all conceivable steps to prevent further humanitarian catastrophes in Gaza,” the lawmakers wrote.
Biden’s memorandum requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken to report to Congress on Wednesday on whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that the use of US weapons complies with international law.
At least four State Department agencies told Blinken last month that they found Israel’s assurances “neither credible nor reliable.”
If Israel’s guarantees are called into question, Biden would have the option to “remediate” the situation through actions ranging from seeking new guarantees to suspending US arms transfers, the memorandum said.
The UN SAYS famine is on the rise in GAZA
Israel denies violating international law and restricting aid in its war against ruling Hamas militants in Gaza, sparked by their October 7 attack on Israel in which they killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages seized.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly seven months of fighting that has devastated the coastal enclave and left most of its population of 2.3 million displaced due to severe food and water shortages, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Executive Director of the UN World Food Program Cindy McCain told NBC News that there is now a “complete famine” in northern Gaza.
In excerpts of an interview that aired Sunday on Meet the Press, McCain told NBC she hoped for a ceasefire agreement so more aid could be delivered more quickly.
“There is a famine – a full-blown famine – in the north, and it is spreading to the south. And so what we are asking for and what we have continually asked for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access,” he said. McCain, the widow of the late Senator John McCain.
U.S. officials say that while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has taken steps that have boosted aid deliveries, the amounts are still insufficient.
The lawmakers in their letter also condemned Hamas’ attack on October 7, endorsed Israel’s right to exist and expressed support for US efforts to broker a ceasefire and a second release of hostages.
Israel, they noted, has recently opened more aid routes and border crossings into Gaza, allowing more aid trucks to enter.
But the lawmakers expressed “serious concerns” about Israel’s warfare “as it relates to the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”
They urged Biden to “make it clear” to Netanyahu that as long as Israel limits aid to Gaza, directly or indirectly, the Israeli government risks being in line for further offensive security assistance from the US.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
