For the first time since the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the United States, Israel’s primary military supporter, sets conditions for the delivery of weapons. Joe Biden warned, Wednesday, May 8: he will no longer deliver the weapons previously used against the cities, if the IDF continues its desire to penetrate the population centers of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. A threat described as “disappointing” by Israel.
Information to remember
⇒ Joe Biden threatens Israel to stop sending certain weapons in the event of a major offensive in Rafah
⇒ Shelling on certain neighborhoods of Rafah continues to cause casualties
⇒ Negotiations for a pause in fighting resumed on Wednesday
Israel considers US threat on arms deliveries “very disappointing”
“This is a very hard and disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war.” Thursday, May 9, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, castigated the threat of the American head of state Joe Biden to stop the delivery of certain weapons to the IDF, if the Israeli army continued its offensive against the center of the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded, including more than a million displaced people.
“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” and “gives them hope,” added Gilad Erdan, in an intervention on Israeli public radio. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insisting for months that he is determined to launch a major ground offensive against the city of Rafah where, he claims, the last Hamas battalions are hiding.
“If Israel is prevented from entering an area as important as the center of Rafah, where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders, how is the goal of annihilating Hamas supposed to be be reached?” asked the Israeli ambassador. “Ultimately, the State of Israel will do what it believes must be done for the security of its citizens,” he said.
Biden will no longer deliver “weapons and shells” used against cities
For the first time since the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the United States, Israel’s primary military supporter and diplomatic ally, set conditions on Wednesday evening for the delivery of weapons to Israel. If Israeli soldiers “enter Rafah, I will not deliver to them the weapons that have always been used […] against cities,” Joe Biden said in an interview with CNN, citing in particular “artillery shells.”
“We will not deliver the weapons and artillery shells that have been used” so far against the cities. “Civilians were killed in Gaza because of these bombs […] This is bad.” According to a senior American official, the United States last week suspended the delivery of a shipment consisting of “1,800 2,000-pound bombs (907 kilograms) and 1,700 500-pound bombs ( 226 kilos)”, while the Israeli army was preparing to launch a “limited” offensive according to it in Rafah, which some fear as being the prelude to a major assault.
Asked about ongoing operations in Rafah, where the Israeli army has deployed tanks and taken control of a border crossing, Joe Biden said it was not affecting “population centers”, suggesting that , for Washington, this is not the large-scale operation so feared. “I said it clearly to Bibi (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and to the war cabinet, they will not have our support if they really enter the population centers,” said the American president.
The announcement comes at a delicate time for the Biden administration, which is expected to submit a much-anticipated report to Congress this week on whether Israel’s use of U.S. weapons complies with international law and, thereby, respects American law. Calls are being made more and more numerous in the United States to condition American military aid. What’s more, in the middle of an election year in the United States, and while pro-Palestinian demonstrations are shaking many American campuses.
In Rafah, “indiscriminate shelling” on certain neighborhoods
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, an AFP team reported numerous artillery fire in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced strikes against “Hamas positions” in the center of the Palestinian territory ravaged by seven months of war.
Earlier this week, the Israeli army deployed tanks into Rafah and took control of the border crossing with Egypt, cutting off the main gateway for humanitarian aid convoys to the besieged Palestinian territory. The other crossing point near Rafah, Kerem Shalom on the Israeli side, closed on Sunday after shootings claimed by Hamas, was targeted on Wednesday by rocket fire shortly after its reopening, according to the army.
“We are very afraid. The occupying army continues to indiscriminately fire shells on neighborhoods in eastern Rafah, in addition to an intensification of airstrikes,” a resident told AFP. of the city, Mouhanad Ahmad Qishta. “Even areas presented as safe by the Israeli army are bombarded,” he added. “There is continuous and indiscriminate Israeli artillery fire on eastern and central Rafah, which has caused many deaths and injuries and is targeting the upper floors of residential buildings,” he told AFP. Ahmed Radwan, a Civil Defense official in Gaza.
The closure of crossing points and military operations in Rafah raise fears of a worsening of the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory. Hospitals in southern Gaza had only “three days of fuel left” on Wednesday, “which means they could soon stop functioning,” warned World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Negotiations still underway for a truce
In Cairo, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, via mediator countries (Qatar, Egypt and the United States), resumed on Wednesday to try to reach a compromise on a truce and avoid an assault in Rafah. The media Al-Qahera News, close to Egyptian intelligence, reported a “convergence” of views on certain points.
In Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with CIA Director William Burns to discuss a possible “pause” in military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages, according to an Israeli official . On Monday, a few hours before the deployment of Israeli troops in Rafah, Hamas gave the green light to a proposal presented by the mediators. Israel responded that this proposal was “far from its demands” and repeated its opposition to a definitive ceasefire, as long as Hamas was not defeated.