The Biden administration is reportedly telling Israeli officials to take immediate measures to address the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip or risk cutting off access to key U.S. military assistance. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote to senior Israeli officials warning that continued U.S. military assistance is in jeopardy over the spiraling humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, urging the Israeli government to take “urgent and sustained action” to reverse course, in a letter reported by The Washington Post and Axios. The State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Hill.  The letter, dated Sunday, is addressed to Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Ron Dermer, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The top Biden officials warn against the Israeli government restricting U.S. humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. “The Departments of State and Defense must continually assess your government’s adherence to your March 2024 assurances that Israel would ‘facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance’ to and within Gaza,” the letter states.   “The Department of State will need to conduct a similar assessment under section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide additional Foreign Military Financing assistance to Israel. We are now writing to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory.” Blinken and Austin raise alarm in the letter that the amount of aid entering Gaza has dropped by 50 percent compared to assurances provided in March and April. Israeli government statistics recorded 4,235 trucks entering Gaza in September, lower than previous months, including a high in April of nearly 7,000 trucks, but more than low points in December 2023 and February, when closer to 3,500 trucks crossed the border.  But even if aid trucks enter Gaza, the path to distribution is strained by the security situation and the ability of aid groups to distribute goods. Israeli government statistics showed that while 104 humanitarian aid trucks crossed into Gaza on Oct. 15, only 12 trucks were collected, and showed 530 trucks worth of aid are waiting for collection.  The top Biden officials call for Israel to take 15 immediate steps to surge all forms of humanitarian assistance within 30 days or risk delivery of U.S.-provided weapons.  Among the actions include enabling a minimum of 350 trucks per day to enter the strip; instituting “adequate” humanitarian pauses to allow for distribution of humanitarian assistance; enhancing security for fixed humanitarian sites; and allowing the movement of people inland from a tent camp in the coastal enclave of al-Muwasi before winter. The letter also calls for the Israeli military to “end isolation of northern Gaza.”  “Lastly, it is vitally important that our governments establish a new channel through which we can raise and discuss civilian harm incidents. Our engagements to date have not produced necessary outcomes. We ask that the initial virtual meeting of this channel be held by the end of October,” Blinken and Austin wrote.  “We again ask for your urgent intervention and leadership to address this situation.” The United Nations, aid groups and other governments have raised alarm that the delivery of humanitarian assistance is being throttled as Israel has stepped up its military campaign in northern Gaza in recent weeks, following the collapse of cease-fire talks to release hostages.  Vice President Harris, who has publicly rejected limiting weapons support to Israel, raised alarm in a post on social platform X, citing the U.N. reporting that no food had entered northern Gaza in nearly two weeks, and called for Israel to “do more to facilitate the flow to those in need.”