On Nov. 12, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. According to the State Department readout of the meeting, they “reviewed steps that Israel has taken to improve the dire humanitarian situation inside Gaza in response to the letter sent by the Secretary and Secretary of Defense Austin on October 13.” Dermer briefed Blinken “on operational changes made by the Israeli Defense Forces and COGAT [Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories], as well as policy decisions taken by the Government of Israel to address the measures included in the letter.” The letter threatened that if Israel did not improve humanitarian access to Gaza within 30 days, the U.S. would have to consider suspending some arms shipments to Israel.
Blinken told reporters in Brussels yesterday that the intent of the latter “was to inject a sense of urgency with Israel to take necessary steps to address the dire humanitarian situation of children, women, and men in Gaza. The effect has been that of the 15 steps that we urged action on, Israel has taken action either in implementing or being in the process of implementing 12 of the 15 steps.”
The three remaining steps include: making sure Israel lifts evacuation orders once operations in an area that’s been evacuated are completed; allowing commercial trucks carrying commercial goods into Gaza; and, “we need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it,” Blinken said. “We’re starting to see, as I said, implementation of most of the steps that we’ve laid out. It will take some time for them to have effect. And again, they have to be fully implemented and they have to be sustained. But even with that, I think it’s essential that we see things like more extended pauses.”
