“Very disappointing”: Israel rejects Biden’s warning to stop the delivery of some weapons

MEXICO CITY (France 24).- This May 9, Israeli Government officials showed their rejection of the decision of US President Joe Biden to stop sending bombs to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Army and the threat to stop the delivery of artillery ammunition if majority-Jewish state troops launch a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza, where most of the internally displaced population is sheltering.

Despite the warnings, Israeli troops continued their ground advance in Rafah with new attacks, which left dozens dead in the last hours, both in that town and in other areas of the enclave. In recent days, Israel insisted that these are “limited” operations against Hamas members. While there is fear of a full-fledged offensive there, Israel maintains the closure of border crossings, which hinders the entry of humanitarian aid.

Tension between two former allies in the midst of the war in Gaza.

Although on repeated occasions the president of the United States, Joe Biden, stressed his support for Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza, the president’s latest decisions to stop the delivery of a shipment of bombs and the warning to stop the shipment of munitions artillery, has been received with disappointment in the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

This is a difficult and very disappointing statement.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, rejected this Thursday, May 9, Biden’s warnings, delivered a day earlier during an exclusive interview with the ‘CNN’ network,

“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Erdan told the local press, Israel’s first reaction to the White House leader’s warning.

In addition, the Israeli diplomat noted that Biden’s comments would be interpreted by the “enemies of Israel,” referring to Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, as “something that gives them hope of success.”

“If Israel is restricted from accessing an area as important and central as Rafah, where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our objectives?” Erdan said.

However, the official also indicated that Biden’s measure is due to political pressure after the pro-Palestinian protests at universities and ahead of the US elections.

We will achieve complete victory in this war despite President Biden’s rejection and arms embargo

For his part, the far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, assured that his government would pursue its objectives in Gaza, despite the American threat.

“We will achieve a complete victory in this war despite President Biden’s rejection and arms embargo (…) We must continue the war until Hamas is totally eliminated and our hostages are back home. This means conquering Rafah completely and the sooner the better,” Smotrich said in a statement.

Other Israeli officials had sharper reactions. Ben Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, posted on X that Biden “loves” Hamas, with a heart emoji.

The leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, asked Netanyahu in a statement to dismiss the minister, since with his provocation to the United States he endangered “all the soldiers and citizens of the State of Israel.”

Following the ministers’ statements, Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, reiterated in a statement that Biden is “a great friend” and that it is a collective responsibility “to avoid baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets that harm national security and the interests of the State of Israel.”

His statements show a clear rejection of the first time, in seven months of ongoing hostilities against the Palestinian enclave, that Biden directly conditions the delivery of weapons to his ally.

In the interview, the president acknowledged that Israel has used American weapons to attack civilians in the Strip. “If they enter Rafah, I will not provide them with the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities (…) Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of those bombs. It is simply wrong,” declared the Democratic leader, in his harshest warning to his ally in the Middle East since the start of the ongoing war.

U.S. officials said Washington had already halted the delivery of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs last week because of the risk they posed to Gaza’s civilian population.

Dozens dead in Israeli attacks in Rafah and other areas of Gaza

The Israeli Army’s military offensive in Rafah is advancing, despite the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation for the civilian population.

Israeli forces massed tanks and opened fire near built-up areas of Rafah on Thursday, despite warnings from Biden.

In the city’s east end, residents described a helicopter opening fire, while drones flew over homes in several areas, some near rooftops.

The UN Refugee Agency estimates that at least 1.4 million Palestinians live overcrowded in Rafah, where families displaced by the war in other areas of the enclave came seeking refuge.

The Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad reported that their militants had attacked Israeli forces outside Rafah, firing anti-tank rockets.

Residents of eastern Rafah told Palestinian media and the Reuters agency that they had heard explosions due to battles between the two sides of the war.

Israeli air and ground attacks also continued in other areas of the Gaza Strip on May 9. The tanks advanced in the north of Gaza City, in the Zeitoun neighborhood, forcing hundreds of families to flee.

According to the Israeli Army, the bombings on Zeitoun were strategically directed against Hamas bases.

At least 34,904 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and 78,514 have been injured by Israeli attacks since the escalation of the conflict began on October 7, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health released this Thursday.

A potential “humanitarian catastrophe”

Nearly 80,000 Palestinians have left Rafah since the military ground offensive began on Monday night, May 6, according to the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which considers it a “forced displacement,” a war crime. .

“The damage done to these families is unbearable. No place is safe,” UNRWA declared, urging a ceasefire.

The UN and human rights groups insist that a further Israeli military incursion into Rafah would be a “humanitarian catastrophe.” On May 7, Israel closed the Rafah crossing, which borders Egypt and is an essential access point for humanitarian assistance to the enclave.

“We are not receiving any aid, there are military operations in the area of ​​the crossing and it is an active war zone,” said UNRWA official Scott Anderson, quoted by UN News on May 9.

“We heard continuous shelling in these areas all day. Neither fuel nor other forms of aid have entered the Gaza Strip and this is a disaster for the humanitarian response,” she added.

On Wednesday, May 8, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that if more fuel did not arrive for the generators, hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip could only continue operating for three more days. . One of the three hospitals in Rafah already had to close its doors, the other two are partially functioning.

“Rafah is a city of children,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder had stressed on Tuesday. According to a report by the UN agency, more than 600,000 children are currently taking refuge in Rafah, “highly vulnerable and on the verge of survival.”

Truce negotiations continue in Cairo

The director of the US Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns returned to Cairo from Jerusalem on May 9 to resume dialogue with mediators trying to obtain a ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Burns met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

Delegations from Hamas, Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting in the Egyptian capital since Tuesday, trying to overcome disagreements between the Islamist group Hamas and the State of Israel to reach a truce agreement.

On the night of May 8, Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau currently in Qatar, said in a statement that the group would not accept more than the ceasefire proposal that it had already accepted on Monday, and which includes the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the group’s multiple attack in Israel on October 7, which claimed the lives of 1,200 people.

“Israel is not seriously seeking to reach an agreement and is using the negotiations as a cover to invade Rafah,” Reshiq said.

Following Hamas’ proposal on Monday, Netanyahu declared that it was “far from meeting the fundamental demands” of his country, but that did not prevent him from sending a delegation to negotiate in Egypt.

With EFE, Reuters and local media