Israel 'has failed to meet US deadline on aid'

Israel has failed to meet 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, aid organizations said yesterday.

The Biden administration last month called on Israel to "surge" more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory, giving it a 30-day deadline that expired yesterday. It warned that failure to comply could trigger laws requiring it to scale back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has announced steps to improve the situation. But US officials recently signaled it still isn't doing enough.

Israel's new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, saying on Monday he was confident "the issue would be solved." The Biden administration may have less leverage after the reelection of Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel.

Yesterday's report, authored by eight aid organizations, listed 19 measures of compliance needed on US demands. It said Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four.

The measures include allowing a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day; opening a fifth crossing; allowing people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensuring access for aid groups to hard-hit northern Gaza.

After the report was published, Israel announced the opening of a fifth crossing close to Deir al Balah city in Gaza. It will allow for the delivery of supplies to the territory's central and southern regions.

That came as Palestinian officials said two strikes in Gaza killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman.

A late Monday strike hit a cafeteria in the so-called Muwasi humanitarian zone west of the Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital.

Another strike early yesterday hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people including a woman.

ASSOCIATED PRESS