An Israeli official in Washington said that Israel is reviewing a letter from two senior American officials in which they asked Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk restricting military aid, while the Government Information Office in Gaza called for opening an immediate humanitarian corridor to save the health system in the besieged northern Strip.
Reuters reported that the Israeli official added late Tuesday evening that “Israel takes this issue seriously and intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts.”
According to the letter, the United States informed Israel that it must take steps within a month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face possible restrictions on US military aid.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed in the letter to the Israeli government that it must make adjustments to see that the level of aid entering Gaza once again rises from the very low levels it is today, in a letter they sent on Sunday.
The letter pointed out that US law stipulates that “entities receiving US military aid shall not arbitrarily refuse or obstruct the provision of US humanitarian aid.”
The United States is the most prominent military supporter of Israel. Since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip, Washington has once suspended an arms shipment to Israel, as part of a total of billions of dollars in aid.
Miller denied that there was any connection between the US presidential elections scheduled for November 5, and the letter that called on Israel to take steps within 30 days, that is, after the voting date.
Saving the health system
In this context, the government media office in the Gaza Strip issued, on Tuesday, a distress call to open a safe corridor immediately and effectively to save the health system in the northern Gaza Strip, which is going through a catastrophic and unprecedented situation due to the Israeli occupation’s aggression.
This came in a statement by the office, as the Israeli army continued, for 12 days, a campaign of extermination and starvation against the Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, during which it intensified raids, shooting, destroying and burning homes, and preventing the entry of food and medicine.
On October 6, the Israeli army announced the start of its invasion of the northern Gaza Strip for the third time since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. Under the pretext of preventing Hamas from regaining its power in the region, while the Palestinians say that Israel wants to occupy the region and displace its residents.
The office said that the Israeli occupation army continues to target the health system in the northern Gaza Strip governorate, as it threatened a few days ago to bring down the four hospitals operating in the governorate, and opened fire on the administration room of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
He added that the army asked all medical teams to leave the four hospitals: Kamal Adwan Hospital, Indonesian Hospital, Al-Awda Hospital, and Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital.
To confront this, the office called on the international community and all international and international organizations to open a truly safe corridor to save the health system in the North Gaza Governorate, to ensure the continued provision of health services, and to supply the four hospitals with everything necessary.
On Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip launched an appeal for the need to bring medicines, medical supplies and food to besieged patients and medical staff in hospitals in the northern Strip.
With American support, Israel has been waging a genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, resulting in more than 141,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst… Humanitarian disasters in the world.
