In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, May 8, Joe Biden, for the first time, set conditions for the military support granted to Israel. The American president thus announced that he would no longer deliver weapons in the event that the city of Rafah was the subject of a ground attack by Israel.
Joe Biden puts pressure on Israel. In an interview with the channel CNN, the American president warned his Israeli counterpart about the delivery of certain weapons, in particular “artillery shells” in the event of a major offensive in Raffah. A statement from Washington which is today the primary military supporter of the Jewish state. “If they enter Rafah, I will not deliver to them the weapons that have always been used (…) against cities,” explained Joe Biden.
This is the first time that the 81-year-old Democratic president has publicly set conditions for United States military support for Israel. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza because of these bombs. It’s bad,” he explained.
An “anti-terrorist operation” carried out in Raffah
While the Israeli army announced on Telegram on Wednesday that it was carrying out an “anti-terrorist operation” in several specific areas of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden estimated that the latter did not affect “population centers”. Thus, for the latter, this military operation is not considered a major action which requires a reaction from the United States. “I said it clearly to Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, editor’s note) and to the war cabinet, they will not have our support if they really enter the population centers,” explained the American president. .
A position far from satisfying on the Israeli side. Thus, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, considers this decision “very hard to hear” and “disappointing”, reports BFMTV. “It is quite clear that any pressure on Israel, any restriction imposed on it, even from close allies concerned about our interests, is interpreted by our enemies”, giving them at the same time “hope,” he added.
For several days, Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to launch a ground operation on the town of Rafah, in the very place where the last battalions of Hamas which attacked Israel on October 7 were hiding. However, the city also has a large proportion of civilians whose number is estimated at 1.4 million, the majority displaced by war.