US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday that Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved. Relief groups say conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but “we, at this time, have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law." It requires recipients of military assistance to adhere to international humanitarian law and not impede the provision of such aid.

“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said, adding that the steps Israel has taken have not yet made a significant enough difference. “We want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.”

The decision from the U.S. — Israel’s key ally and largest provider of arms — comes despite international aid organizations declaring that Israel has failed to meet U.S. demands to allow greater humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. Hunger experts have warned that the north may already be experiencing famine.

The Biden administration last month set a deadline expiring Tuesday for Israel to “surge” more food and other emergency aid into the Palestinian territory or risk the possibility of scaled-back military support as Israel wages offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The obstacles facing aid distribution were on this display this week. Even after the Israeli military gave permission for a delivery to the northernmost part of Gaza — virtually cut off from food for more than a month by an Israeli siege — the United Nations said it couldn't deliver most of it because of turmoil and restrictions from Israeli troops on the ground.

In the south, hundreds of truckloads of aid are sitting on the Gaza side of the border because the U.N. says it cannot reach them to distribute the aid — again because of the threat of lawlessness, theft and Israeli military restrictions.

Dozens of people stood in long lines Tuesday waiting to receive food packages distributed by U.N. agencies in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

“We hope that the world would sympathize with us because of this affliction we are in,” Salim Abu Mansi said. “Life is poverty, and the country is getting worse every day.”

It opened a new crossing in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir al-Balah, for aid to enter. It also announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. It connected electricity for a desalination plant in Deir al-Balah. But the effect was unclear.

Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, appeared to downplay the deadline, telling reporters Monday he was confident “the issue would be solved.” The Biden administration may have less leverage after Donald Trump — a staunch supporter of Israel — won the presidential election.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest aide, Ron Dermer, in Washington on Monday about the steps Israel has taken and stressed “the importance of ensuring those changes lead to an actual improvement in the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the State Department said Tuesday.

President Joe Biden met Tuesday at the White House with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, but they didn't speak publicly about the aid issue. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. knew how dire the conditions were and would keep discussing with Israel the extra steps it needs to take.

Eight international groups said in a report that the country also took actions “that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza. … That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”

The report listed 19 measures of compliance with the U.S. demands, saying Israel had failed to comply with 15 and only partially complied with four. It was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.

In an Oct. 13 letter, the U.S. gave Israel 30 days, among other things, to allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day; open a fifth crossing; allow people in coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter; and ensure access for aid groups to northern Gaza. It also called on Israel to halt legislation that would hinder operations of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Aid levels remain far below the U.S. benchmarks. Access to northern Gaza remains restricted, and Israel has pressed ahead with its laws against UNRWA.

Israel launched a major offensive last month in the north, where it says Hamas militants had regrouped. The operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

Through October and the first days of November, Israel allowed no food to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.

Last week, Israel allowed 11 trucks to go to Beit Hanoun, one of the north’s hardest-hit towns. But the World Food Organization said troops at a checkpoint forced its trucks to unload their cargo before reaching shelters.

COGAT — the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza — said Tuesday it allowed a new delivery of food and water to Beit Hanoun a day earlier. The WFP said that while it tried to send 14 trucks, only three made it to the town “due to delays in receiving authorization for movement and crowds along the route.” When it tried to deliver the rest Tuesday, Israel denied it permission, it said.

Aid into all of Gaza plummeted in October, when just 34,000 tons of food entered, only a third of the previous month, according to Israeli data.

U.N. agencies say even less actually gets through because of Israeli restrictions, fighting and lawlessness that make it difficult to collect and distribute aid on the Gaza side.

In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 75 a day so far in November, according to Israel’s official figures. The U.N. says it only received 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October.

COGAT said 900 truckloads of aid are sitting uncollected on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.

“Before the organizations give out grades, they should focus on distributing the aid that awaits them,” COGAT said in response to the aid groups’ report.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said the military was not coordinating movements for aid trucks to reach the stacked-up cargos. “If we are not provided a safe passage to go and collect it ... it will not reach the people who need it,” she said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many of those were militants but that more than half are women and children. Around 90% of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps, with little food, water or hygiene facilities.

The United States has rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel during the war, while pressing it to allow more aid into Gaza.

Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how. Netanyahu says they have spoken three times since Trump won the White House last week.

Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa Shurafa in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, and Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

President Joe Biden shakes hands with Israel's President Isaac Herzog, left, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

FILE - Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid over Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, speaks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 3, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Palestinians line up to receive aid distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, in Nusairat refugee camp, Gaza, on Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - Palestinians are storming trucks loaded with humanitarian aid brought in through a new U.S.-built pier, in the central Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - Trucks carrying humanitarian aid cross into the Gaza Strip from Erez crossing in southern Israel, on Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)

FILE - Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital where displaced people live in tents, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Social media site Bluesky has gained 1 million new users in the week since the U.S. election, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and engage with others online.

Bluesky said Wednesday that its total users surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October.

Championed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That invite-only period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other features. The platform resembles Elon Musk's X, with a “discover” feed as well a chronological feed for accounts that users follow. Users can send direct messages and pin posts, as well as find “starter packs” that provide a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow.

The post-election uptick in users isn’t the first time that Bluesky has benefitted from people leaving X. Bluesky gained 2.6 million users in the week after X was banned in Brazil in August — 85% of them from Brazil, the company said. About 500,000 new users signed up in the span of one day last month, when X signaled that blocked accounts would be able to see a user's public posts.

Despite Bluesky's growth, X posted last week that it had “dominated the global conversation on the U.S. election” and had set new records. The platform saw a 15.5% jump in new-user signups on Election Day, X said, with a record 942 million posts worldwide. Representatives for Bluesky and for X did not respond to requests for comment.

Bluesky has referenced its competitive relationship to X through tongue-in-cheeks comments, including an Election Day post on X referencing Musk watching voting results come in with President-elect Donald Trump.

“I can guarantee that no Bluesky team members will be sitting with a presidential candidate tonight and giving them direct access to control what you see online,” Bluesky said.

Across the platform, new users — among them journalists, left-leaning politicians and celebrities — have posted memes and shared that they were looking forward to using a space free from advertisements and hate speech. Some said it reminded them of the early days of X, when it was still Twitter.

On Wednesday, The Guardian said it would no longer post on X, citing “far right conspiracy theories and racism” on the site as a reason. At the same time, television journalist Don Lemon posted on X that he is leaving the platform but will continue to use other social media, including Bluesky.

Lemon said he felt X was no longer a place for “honest debate and discussion.” He noted changes to the site's terms of service set to go into effect Friday that state lawsuits against X must be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas rather than the Western District of Texas. Musk said in July that he was moving X's headquarters to Texas from San Francisco.

“As the Washington Post recently reported on X’s decision to change the terms, this 'ensures that such lawsuits will be heard in courthouses that are a hub for conservatives, which experts say could make it easier for X to shield itself from litigation and punish critics,’” Lemon wrote. “I think that speaks for itself.”

Last year, advertisers such as IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast fled X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

FILE - The app for Bluesky is shown on a mobile phone, left, and on a laptop screen on June 2, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)