ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The secretaries of state and defense sent a letter to Israeli leaders warning that if more food doesn't enter the Gaza Strip, U.S. laws might require cuts in American military support. They gave Israel 30 days, and today marks that deadline. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel says Israel is making some improvements.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VEDANT PATEL: We, at this time, have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law. But most importantly, we are going to continue to watch how these steps that they've taken - how they are being implemented.
SHAPIRO: NPR correspondent Aya Batrawy in Dubai and producer Anas Baba in Gaza have this report on what conditions actually look like.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: NPR producer Anas Baba went to Deir al-Balah street market in central Gaza.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: All I see in front of me are only the displaced people filling the streets, searching for anything to buy. And there are some rotten tomatoes and cucumber - will cost you around $20. Cooking oil, which is - will cost you a fortune. It's $10.
BATRAWY: There were also a few locally grown zucchini and eggplant and some canned chickpeas and beans, but...
BABA: There is no meat, chicken, fresh vegetables or fruits, no rice, no dairy products or even baby formula or even eggs.
PATEL: A father of five who goes by Abu Fares is staring at the food being sold. He was once a businessman and landowner, but everything was lost in the war. He was too embarrassed to give his full family name.
ABU FARES: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: He says he's scared to bring his son to the market because he might see a local apple and want it, and he can't get it for him.
FARES: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Abu Fares says, "Biden told Israel's prime minister to let more food in. But," he says, "if all of Gaza is being killed, at least kill us with our stomachs full."
LOUISE WATERIDGE: People can't live on flour. People can't live on, you know, tinned, canned food.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUN FIRING)
WATERIDGE: Oh, my God. Sorry. There was a strike.
BATRAWY: Louise Wateridge is the senior emergency officer at UNRWA, the main U.N. agency overseeing aid in Gaza. She's had rare access in recent days to Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of people remain.
WATERIDGE: There were phases around a year ago, actually, and again in February, where people would just swarm around flour trucks. You might remember the images and the videos that came out. And we're seeing that again now.
BATRAWY: The situation is even more dire to the north. Famine there is imminent, according to an independent body of experts called the Famine Review Committee that monitor hunger and famine worldwide. Israel says the group's assessments are incorrect and that it's meeting U.S. demands. Here's government spokesman David Mencer.
DAVID MENCER: We take extremely seriously the contents of that letter. We have studied it intensely. We have acted upon it with the best will that we can.
BATRAWY: Israel says it expanded a displaced people's tent camp, opened more border crossings for goods to enter Gaza and increased the number of trucks from what UNRWA says was a low of around 30 a day last month. Mencer blamed Hamas, the group that attacked Israel last year, for the continued war.
MENCER: Hamas are prepared to fight to the last Gazan. All this is obvious to understand that Israel is liberating Gaza from Hamas.
(CROSSTALK)
BATRAWY: At a U.N. warehouse in southern Khan Younis, hundreds of men and women arrive early for a bag of flour.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: They hold onto the warehouse's steel, blue doors. But on this day, the doors remain closed. Everyone goes home empty-handed and hungry.
Eight aid groups working in Gaza, such as Mercy Corps and Refugees International, published a scorecard today, assessing whether Israel had met the list of 19 requirements laid out in the U.S. letter, including enabling at least 350 trucks into Gaza per day, expanding humanitarian pauses and loosening restrictions on what enters. They say Israel failed on all but four of the demands. Here's Mercy Corps' vice president for global policy and advocacy, Kate Phillips-Barrasso.
KATE PHILLIPS-BARRASSO: In fact, there's been a dramatic backtracking and deterioration of the circumstances in the 30-day period after which the letter was sent.
BATRAWY: The U.N. World Food Programme says on Monday, for the first time in more than a month, people in the northern Gaza Beit Hanoun area received food assistance - three trucks total - in coordination with Israel's military. But the U.N. agency says, after the aid was delivered, reports emerged of Israeli forces surrounding that site, ordering families to flee and opening fire. They say requests to deliver more aid were denied. Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai, with Anas Baba in Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
