By Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department warned on Monday that humanitarian assistance was not getting to people that need it in Jabalia in northern Gaza, which spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. does not accept.
“That’s one of our assessments, is that the food and water and medicine that needs to get to people in Jabalia, they aren’t getting it right now. And we want to see that change,” Miller said.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.
The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.
Israeli forces began the recent operation in the north with the declared aim of preventing Hamas from regrouping. The operation has intensified since the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar over a week ago.
Miller said Washington would clearly reject any effort to create a siege, starve civilians or wall northern Gaza off from the rest of the enclave.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised with Israel a so-called “generals plan”, published by retired military commanders and floated by some parliament members this month, suggesting Palestinian civilians would be instructed to evacuate northern Gaza, which would then be declared a closed military zone.
Israel told the U.S. they are not carrying out the plan, Miller said.
But he warned that Israel was not meeting all of the conditions laid out in a letter the U.S. sent to Israel earlier this month urging it to take steps in 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid, according to U.S. officials.
“They have not fully implemented all of the changes that we called for in that letter,” he said, adding that the U.S. would wait until the expiration of the 30 days before offering a final assessment.
The Israeli parliament passed a law on Monday to ban UN relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country. Miller, before the passage of the law, said the U.S. has made it clear to Israel it is deeply concerned by the legislation, as UNRWA has an irreplaceable role in delivering humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)
