Israel vows to improve Gaza conditions after U.S. threat to withhold weapons

• Senior U.S. officials emphasized that the letter was not intended as a pretext for withholding weapons but as an attempt to spur a change in direction from the Israeli government.
• "There are implications under U.S. law that I'm not going to speak to here largely because we hope that Israel makes the changes that the Secretary outlined in the letter. We have seen Israel make changes before. Ultimately we are focused on the bottom line here," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday.
• Senior Israeli officials admit that although the government in Jerusalem did not like the harsh U.S. ultimatum, the situation in Gaza has deteriorated in contrast with the Israeli Cabinet's official policy on sustaining humanitarian aid, and this could be a chance to correct the course.

State of play: No aid entered northern Gaza, where around 400,000 of Palestinians are located, in the first two weeks of October.

• September was the lowest month for aid coming into Gaza since the beginning of the year.
• The U.S. and UN are also concerned about widespread disease at the overcrowded Mawasi humanitarian area, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter.
• More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began and more than 90% of the civilian population has been displaced.

The latest: The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday that 50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid — including food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment provided by Jordan — were transferred on Wednesday to the northern Gaza Strip via Jordan.

• Resuming the humanitarian aid channel from Jordan to northern Gaza, which had been suspended in recent weeks, was one of the demands in the U.S. letter.

Behind the scenes: On Tuesday, several high-level Israeli officials spoke to their White House counterparts to clarify the situation and emphasize that Israel will take steps to reverse the trend in Gaza, Israeli officials said.

• "We received the American letter and it was examined by the security establishment. Israel takes the issue very seriously and we will respond to the concerns that our American colleagues raised in the letter," one Israeli official said.

• Another Israeli official said many of the U.S. demands — such as reopening border crossings and allowing more aid trucks in — could be addressed within a few days.

Yes, but: Some steps necessary to address the U.S. demands would require approval from Israel's Security Cabinet, the official added.

• Allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move from the Mawasi area on the coast of Gaza eastward towards Khan Yunis and Rafah is a political decision that requires such approval, the official said.
• Some of the U.S. demands are particularly politically charged, such as allowing Red Cross visits to detention facilities in Israel, the halting of legislation regarding UNRWA or an official statement that Israel will not forcibly evacuate Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip.

Between the lines: The Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel throughout the war to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and limit civilian casualties.

• Critics of the administration's approach have long called for arms shipments to be conditioned on Israel's conduct in the war.
• The U.S. has provided billions of dollars worth of weapons since the war began.