Israel boosts aid to war-torn Gaza, but is it enough as the Biden admin's deadline for military support looms?
Tel Aviv — Early this fall in Gaza, aid workers doled out one food portion per mealtime, per family to starving civilians displaced by Israel's raging war with Hamas. But as Israel choked off aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory, the meals dwindled. Last week, the United Nations again warned that some Gazans are facing famine conditions.
Israel's government faces a deadline this Wednesday. The Biden administration warned almost a month ago that Israel must significantly increase the amount of aid reaching Gaza's beleaguered civilian population within 30 days, or it would face restrictions on American military support to the country.
The ultimatum, laid out in a letter from the administration to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his deputies, appears to have had some impact.
CBS News saw aid trucks roll across the border from Israel into Gaza at one of the four land crossing points on Monday morning.
Under U.S. pressure, Israel has increased the amount of aid from a low of just 30 aid trucks entering per day in October, to about 150 now. But that's still less than half of
the 350 trucks the U.S. government said must be rolling into Gaza to meet the urgent needs of the enclave's 2 million-plus people.
United Nations humanitarian agencies have said in recent days that far from a dramatic increase, even less food and other aid are reaching Palestinian civilians in Gaza due to ongoing Israeli restrictions and evacuation orders and ramped-up offensives in the north and center of the territory, along with chaos created by the lack of any law enforcement presence in the enclave.
Netanyahu's newly appointed Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday he was confident that Israel would "reach understanding with our American friends and that issue will be solved."
But Michael Oren, a former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, told CBS News that if the outgoing Biden administration does determine the minimum aid threshold isn't being met and it decides to curb the flow of American military support, it could impact Israel's war effort.
"Israel has to ask itself, 'Do we have the ammunition we need to get to January 20th, 2025?'… I don't know. I served in the Army over the summer, up in the north, and there were some severe shortages back then."
But while the vast material support from the U.S. may be crucial, Oren said there were broader implications for Israel should the U.S. government scale back its backing.
"It's a signal given to other suppliers," he said.
In other words, if Israel's biggest ally reduces the extent of its support for the multifront war, it could prompt other nations that have continued backing the Israeli government despite major human rights concerns, including some that have already imposed some limits, to rein in their aid and diplomatic support, too.
"That signal from the United States — where you already have Canada and Great Britain withholding certain types of arms deliveries from us — the signal, saying that our primary ally in the world is not delivering these arms, [would be] a very, very dangerous signal," said Oren.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog will be in Washington to meet with President Biden on Tuesday, and the provision of aid to Gaza is certain to be a key topic of discussion.
But Netanyahu is also clearly aware that the White House is now set to change hands, and while its incoming resident, President-elect Donald Trump, has criticized the current Israeli government's tactics in communicating about the war, he's seen as less likely to keep up or increase the U.S. pressure over humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
Netanyahu has said he's spoken with President-elect Trump three times in recent days.
Trump has said he wants the war in Gaza to end quickly – reportedly even before he takes office in January - but he hasn't said how he intends to make it happen.
