Washington, DC – The United Nations warns that threats to aid deliveries to Gaza are reaching critical levels as Israel continues to wage war in the Palestinian enclave.
But defenders of the Jewish state say the United States, Israel’s key ally and major donor to the U.N., has remained conspicuously silent.
On Monday, a U.N. official said the organization had been forced to suspend nearly all of its aid operations in Gaza after Israel issued a new round of sweeping evacuation orders.
And on Wednesday, the U.N. World Food Program announced it would temporarily suspend travel by its workers to Gaza after one of its vehicles was attacked as it approached an Israeli checkpoint.
Human rights advocates say the United States has a duty to speak out, especially as child malnutrition rises in Gaza and cases of polio – a preventable but highly contagious disease – spread.
“The US government is at a loss for words and has not even issued its usual performative statements to comment on the UN’s suspension of its aid operations in Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a Washington, DC-based human rights nonprofit.
Blocking humanitarian aid to civilians and attacking aid workers could constitute war crimes under the Geneva Convention, legal experts say.
The UN also warns of the dire consequences of malnutrition on civilians in Gaza. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has noted an increase in acute malnutrition among children in Gaza from May to July, with a 300 percent increase in the north of the enclave. In the south, the rate has more than doubled.
As the UN prepares to launch a mass polio vaccination campaign, Hassan el-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the nonprofit Friends Committee for National Legislation, said the failure to provide basic necessities could worsen the health crisis.
“A 10-month-old baby in Gaza is now paralysed in one leg: this is the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. This is a huge threat,” Mr el-Tayyab told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“At the same time, malnutrition is becoming more widespread. Malnourished patients have much lower efficacy when they take this vaccine. So we need food to make sure the vaccines actually work.”
“Use the bully pulpit”
On Wednesday, the World Food Programme revealed that one of its vehicles had been hit 10 times by Israeli fire in Gaza, despite being clearly identifiable and taking part in a “fully coordinated” humanitarian mission.
The two employees on board were unharmed, saved by the vehicle’s bulletproof window. The agency nevertheless indicated that it was suspending the travel of its employees until further notice.
The day before, Gilles Michaud, the UN’s under-secretary-general for security, had warned that, even if humanitarian operations had been able to resume in Gaza, aid workers were “operating at the highest limits of tolerable risk”.
Michaud also accused Israel of failing to adequately warn aid workers in the event of an attack.
He explained that over the weekend, the Israeli military “gave just hours’ notice to move more than 200 UN staff members from their offices and living quarters in Deir Al Balah, a crucial humanitarian hub.”
“The mass evacuation orders are the latest in a long list of unbearable threats to UN and humanitarian personnel,” Mr. Michaud said.
In light of the recent re-emergence of polio in Gaza, the UN last week called for a seven-day “humanitarian pause” in the war to allow aid workers to move around the enclave safely.
Advocates like el-Tayyab believe that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden can be a key force in making that pause a reality.
“The diplomatic pressure is absolutely enormous,” Mr. el-Tayyab said. “Biden should use his platform to call for a seven-day polio pause now.”
On Tuesday, US Senator Chris Van Hollen also joined the UN’s call for a seven-day pause in the fighting so that vaccines can be administered to Gaza’s estimated 640,000 children.
UN calls for ‘immediate pause’, Van Hollen says wrote on the social media platform X. “(Biden) should do the same. As we work toward a permanent ceasefire (and) the return of the hostages, we must stop the spread of polio now.”
Focus on ceasefire talks
The Biden administration has indicated it is ready to support polio efforts in the enclave.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Israel that he was working with the Israeli government on the vaccine distribution effort.
On Wednesday, Israeli media reported that the government had approved temporary pauses in the fighting to allow for the distribution of vaccines, although no formal plans have been announced.
Gaza’s health ministry said it had also not been informed of any such plan.
Jarrar said there are reasons to be skeptical that these plans will meet the needs of the Palestinians. He also criticized the Biden administration for failing to hold Israel accountable for the disruption to aid deliveries.
“The Biden administration is so involved in aiding and abetting Israel’s crimes that it doesn’t even bother to keep up that pretense,” he said. “Arming Israel while it continues to starve Palestinians and obstruct humanitarian aid is not only unethical, it is also a violation of U.S. law.”
The Biden administration has instead focused its diplomacy on securing a ceasefire deal. U.S. officials have repeatedly said a ceasefire would allow for increased aid to Gaza.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention on August 19, Biden said the administration was working “around the clock” to “prevent a broader war” in the region.
The aim, he explained, is in particular to “immediately deliver humanitarian, health and food aid to Gaza” and to “put an end to the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Two days later, Biden had a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A White House transcript of their conversation cited “the United States’ continued efforts to support Israel’s defense” and “the urgency of establishing a ceasefire.”
The summary does not mention the immediate need for humanitarian access to Gaza.
“It’s worse to say nothing”
Defenders of the Jewish state have expressed little hope that the Biden administration will be able to use the billions in military aid it provides to Israel each year to ensure the free flow of aid to Gaza.
But Annelle Sheline, an analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said it was particularly concerning that the Biden administration had avoided publicly examining how Israel is restricting aid distribution.
Sheline recently resigned from the US State Department in protest of the administration’s policy toward the Gaza war.
“Obviously, the Biden administration has made statements in the past where they refuse to back up any action,” she said. “That’s clearly problematic, but it’s probably even worse to say nothing or not acknowledge or at least call out the ways in which Israel is blocking aid.”
She suggested that the silence could reflect that the United States “does not want to show signs of weakness” toward Israel — a phrase used to symbolize the historically close relationship between the two countries.
In this silence, Sheline saw evidence of a “redoubling” of American support for Israel, despite the violations committed against aid workers.
The United States has continued to supply weapons to Israel, including approving a $20 billion arms package to Israel earlier this month as it anticipates a retaliatory strike from Iran.
Sheline also highlighted the recent appointment of Mira Resnick, who is reportedly a vocal proponent of continued arms transfers to Israel, to the role of deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the State Department’s Middle East bureau. The appointment was first reported by The Huffington Post.
“I think this clearly indicates how comfortable the administration is with Israeli genocide,” Sheline said.
“On the one hand, I interpret this as yet another way in which the administration demonstrates that it does not care about what happens to civilians like in Gaza.”