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WASHINGTON – The White House said Thursday that President Joe Biden has given an ultimatum to Israel that U.S. assistance in the Gaza war depends on “immediate” steps to protect civilians and aid workers. Announced.
Biden speaks by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, three days after a team from celebrity chef Jose Andres’ support group World Central Kitchen was killed in an Israeli drone strike in northern Gaza. did.
“President Biden emphasized that the strikes against humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the White House said in a statement. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of concrete and measurable measures to address harm to civilians, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.”
“I have made clear that U.S. policy on Gaza will be determined by an assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these measures,” Biden said in a statement.
There was no immediate reaction from Prime Minister Netanyahu or his office Thursday.
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more:Deaths of Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen crew mark new low in Gaza war, aid workers say
Monday’s drone attack on the World Central Kitchen team marked the first death of foreign aid workers, including an American, in the six-month Israeli-Hamas war, and prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military’s swift He expressed his apology and condolences. Biden’s phone call to Andres.
The deaths of foreign humanitarian workers, coupled with Mr. Andres’ celebrity status and popularity in Washington, have led to surveys showing that a majority of Americans no longer support Israel’s war against Hamas. It appears to have shaken up the Biden administration.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters: “If we don’t see the change that we need to see, there will be a change in policy.”
“In terms of concrete steps, what we hope to see here in the coming hours and days is a dramatic increase in the flow of humanitarian aid,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. , additional borders will be opened.”
Although it was not clear what specific threats the administration was threatening Israel with if it did not change its behavior in Gaza, Biden’s threat prompted a swift reaction from some Israel supporters in Congress. Ta.
“There are no conditions for Israel in this war with Hamas,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) wrote on social media.
“Instead of attacking our allies, Joe Biden should demand that Hamas release the hostages,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said on his old Twitter X.
Biden pushes for ceasefire and hostage release
The White House announced that Biden urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, which have been stalled for years.
The President “stresses that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and authorizes negotiators to reach a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.” I asked the prime minister to do so,” he said in a statement.
Hamas has taken more than 100 hostages in a stunning riot in southern Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead. More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry, as Israeli forces seek to eradicate the Islamic extremist movement.
Earlier on Thursday, an anonymous senior Hamas official told Reuters that Hamas had rejected a cease-fire proposal by regional diplomats.
“The Hamas leadership has informed the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the proposal is a continuation of the stubborn Israeli position and cannot be accepted,” he told Reuters.
Last month, Israel criticized Hamas’ call for a ceasefire, calling it “delusional.”
Last month, the United States abstained from a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages.
humanitarian bloodshed
More than 200 aid workers, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and gunfire since the war began, officials said.
“This conflict is one of the deadliest in recent memory in terms of aid worker death tolls,” Biden said in a statement. “This is the main reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza is so difficult. This is because no measures have been taken.”
Biden said in a statement Tuesday that he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the attack, which involved one American.
Andres said on Wednesday that the Israeli military targeted the World Central Kitchen convoy “systematically, vehicle by vehicle” after it delivered a large quantity of food aid to a warehouse in central Gaza. Stated.
On the very same day of the airstrike that killed aid workers, the Biden administration reportedly signed off on shipping thousands more bombs to Israel, an attack that has sparked outrage around the world.
Three U.S. officials told The Washington Post that the State Department had approved the transfer of more than 1,000 MK82 500-pound bombs, more than 1,000 small-diameter bombs, and fuses for MK80 bombs. All arms transfers were approved by Congress years before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the current Gaza war, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive arms deals. It is said that it was done.
Speaking by phone from Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, a humanitarian official told USA TODAY that only an end to the fighting can ensure an end to the deaths of civilians and air workers.
“Changes to Israel’s rules of engagement will reduce some of the civilian casualties, but the only way to guarantee the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers is to This is a permanent ceasefire.” humanity and inclusion.
“People are in constant fear,” Dessi said. “Nowhere in Gaza is safe. The threat of an attack in Rafah hangs over their heads.”
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