Two major bodies in charge of humanitarian assistance in the US administration have revealed that Israel deliberately blocks deliveries of food and medicine for Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a 17-page memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April that the body had documented several examples of Israel blocking aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, including Israel’s killing of aid workers, destroying agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, and turning away trucks filled with food and medicine.
USAID, an independent US government agency responsible for developmental and humanitarian work, receives its foreign policy guidance from the State Department.
According to the memo, Israel was using “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments” to prevent US assistance from entering Gaza.
The head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also said at the same time that Israel was blocking aid into Gaza and argued that its actions should trigger the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military support from going to any area that restricts the delivery of assistance
The USAID memo was released after the body’s chief, Samantha Power, warned of imminent famine in Gaza following the Israeli regime’s months-long onslaught on the besieged Palestinian territory.
The memo and assessment from other State Department officials regrading Gaza were refuted by the US ambassador to Israel. The 17-page report was also dismissed by Blinken who claimed in Congress a month later that the US did not assess Israel was blocking US aid shipments to Gaza.
Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil-military advisor in the refugees bureau, resigned over Blinken’s report to Congress, saying in a public statement that there is “abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid.”

Al Masirah report