State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that the US had reached out to Israel demanding an explanation after a “horrifying” airstrike in northern Gaza, citing reports that over 20 children among the dozens reported killed.
The comments were among several expressions of alarm by the Biden administration regarding the humanitarian situation in the northern Gaza Strip, as a 30-day deadline for Israel to address such issues or risk continued US security assistance nears its halfway mark.
- “There are reports of two dozen children killed in this incident — no doubt, a number of them are children who have been fleeing the effects of this war for more than a year now,” Miller said during a press briefing, adding that it has yet to receive an explanation from Israel for the strike.
- At least 93 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were wounded in the IDF strike on a residential building in Beit Lahiya on Tuesday, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Medics cited by Reuters said at least 20 children were among the dead.
The IDF issued a statement saying it was aware of reports about the airstrike and was looking into the matter. The army did not deny being behind the strike but did caution against trusting the unverified death count provided by Hamas authorities.
The Beit Lahiya area was given an evacuation order earlier this month, as the IDF launched a new offensive in the northern Gaza city. The military is also operating in nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, as it seeks to quash a resurgence of Hamas activity in those areas.
Many Palestinians have been unable to evacuate, fearing that they’ll come under Israeli fire if they do or because they have faced threats from Hamas gunmen who have warned them against heeding Israeli calls to flee. Tens of thousands have left, but several hundred thousand people are said to remain in all of northern Gaza.
- Around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said on Monday.
The conditions have led to concern among aid groups that Israel is trying to implement the so-called General’s Plan, which envisions the IDF laying siege to northern Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied this was the case during a meeting last week with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but when the latter asked him to publicly make this clarification, the premier declined to do so.
However, several hundred trucks of aid have reached northern Gaza over the past two weeks, following international backlash after no humanitarian assistance reached that part of the Strip the first half of October.
- Miller said Tuesday that over a year since the October 7 atrocities, Israel has succeeded in decimating Hamas’s leadership and military capabilities so that the terror group can no longer carry out another such attack, but doing so “came at great cost to civilians in Gaza.”
- “It is critically important… that Israel… find a way to end this campaign in a way that brings the hostages home and in a way that ensures their security, and not just continuing endless perpetual conflict,” Miller said.
He clarified that the US was not calling for Israel to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in a manner that would leave a power vacuum, as that would allow Hamas to regain control over the Strip.
Instead, the Biden administration has pushed for the Palestinian Authority to replace Hamas in the post-war management of Gaza. Nearly half a dozen Arab countries have offered to assist in securing the Strip after the war if Israel agrees to allow the PA to gain a foothold in the enclave.
But the idea has been flatly rejected by Netanyahu, who likens the PA to Hamas, very little progress on so-called “day after” planning for over a year.
Also Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed her horror over reports from humanitarian agencies that no food assistance has reached the northern Gaza cities of Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in nearly a month.
- “The United States has made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that one year into this conflict, Israel must address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza; that the United States rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabalia, or anywhere else,” she said in her remarks to UN Security Council session on the war in Gaza.
The US envoy didn’t go as far as to accuse Israel of intentionally starving Palestinians, but her decision to raise the issue appeared to underscore the administration was taking the allegations seriously.
“Israel’s words must be matched by action on the ground,” Thomas-Greenfield continued. “Right now, that is not happening. This must change immediately.”
While recognizing Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure, Thomas-Greenfield said the US was also demanding that Israel publicly address the “harrowing reports” that the IDF was arresting medical staff at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
- “The US has stated clearly that Israel must allow food, medicine, and other supplies into all of Gaza – especially the north, and especially as winter sets in – and protect the workers distributing it,” said the ambassador, appearing to reference an October 13 letter to Israel in which the US warned that continued supply of offensive weapons is at risk if Jerusalem doesn’t take a series of significant steps to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza within 30 days.
The letter noted that the implementation of Knesset legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and severely hampering its work in Gaza and the West Bank risked Israel’s compliance with US law, which bars the transfer of offensive weapons to countries that block the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The two pieces of Knesset legislation were passed on Monday, drawing immediate fury from Washington, which urged Jerusalem to freeze the laws that are set to be implemented in 90 days.
Netanyahu declared that Israel is prepared to work with the international community to ensure that aid can still reach Gazan civilians, but a US official speaking to The Times of Israel on Monday called the offer “disingenuous,” saying that Jerusalem should’ve had a plan in place for how to replace the services UNRWA provides before outlawing it.
While Israel has worked to gradually limit UNRWA’s role in the delivery of humanitarian aid, in favor of the World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies, UNRWA is still heavily involved in the Strip’s humanitarian operation, running shelters, clinics and warehouses.
Israel has long had a combative relationship with UNRWA, which it argues has perpetuated the Palestinian refugee crisis by allowing the status to be passed down through generations. Frustration with UNRWA in Jerusalem has picked up over the past decade as Israel has found the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group embedded within the agency’s infrastructure.
That anger has peaked since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which a number of UNRWA staffers were found to have participated. Israel has gone on to claim that 10% of the UN agency’s staff have ties to Hamas — a charge the agency has denied.
Thomas-Greenfield acknowledged in her remarks to the UN Security Council that there is no denying the involvement of some UNRWA personnel in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, saying even the agency’s leaders have admitted as much.
She didn’t offer any detail, but said the relief agency for Palestinian refugees has taken steps to implement reforms, and the ambassador urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to create a mechanism to review and address allegations that UNRWA personnel have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
She added that there was no alternative agency that can replace UNRWA in the middle of the war and urged Israel to boost its coordination with UNWRA, even though authorities will be barred from even contacting the agency’s staffers in 90 days, according to the Knesset legislation.
Source: Jacob Magid – TOI