WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza depends on the rapid implementation of new measures to protect civilians and aid workers.
Biden And Netanyahu The roughly 30-minute call just days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven aid workers in Gaza added a new layer of complication to increasingly tense relations between the leaders. Biden’s message marks a sea change in his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts, with the US leader threatening for the first time to rethink his support if Israel does not change its tactics and allow significantly more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The White House has not specified what might change in U.S. policy, but it could include a shift in military sales to Israel and U.S. diplomatic support on the world stage.
Netanyahu’s office said Friday morning that his security cabinet had approved a series of “immediate measures” to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including the reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed during the Hamas attack on October 7.
Administration officials said before the announcement that the United States would evaluate whether Israeli measures went far enough.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable measures to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers,” the House said Blanche in a statement following the leaders’ call. . “He made clear that U.S. policy toward Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these measures.”
Biden also told Netanyahu it was “essential” to reach an “immediate ceasefire” in exchange for the nearly 100 hostages still held in Gaza, and urged Israel to reach such an agreement “without delay” , according to the White House. Administration officials called the conversation “direct” and “honest.”
Netanyahu’s office said the Erez crossing, which for years served as the only passenger terminal allowing people to enter and exit Gaza, would be temporarily reopened. He also said Israel would allow its Ashdod port to be used to handle aid shipments to Gaza and would allow an increase in Jordanian aid shipments through another land crossing. The ad does not specify quantities or types of items to be let in.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson welcomed Netanyahu’s steps, adding that the plan “must now be fully and quickly implemented.”
“As the President said on today’s call, U.S. policy toward Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these and other measures, including measures to protect innocent civilians and the safety of aid workers,” Watson said.
The leaders’ conversation comes as Central cuisine of the world, founded by restaurateur José Andrés to provide immediate food aid to disaster areas, has called for an independent investigation into Israeli strikes that killed seven of the group’s staff members, including a U.S. citizen. The White House has said the United States has no plans to conduct its own investigation.
Furthermore, the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be reduced if Israel did not make significant adjustments in the way it fights the war. “If we don’t see the changes we need, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed the Israelis’ call for “tangible” and “concrete” changes, beyond reiterating their long-standing calls for date to authorize the arrival of additional aid to Gaza.
“If there is no change in their policy approach, then ours will have to change,” Kirby said. “There are things to do. There are too many civilians killed.
Demands for Israel to bring a quick end to the conflict were mounting across all policy areas, former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to take on Biden this fall, saying Thursday that Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and calling for a resolution to the bloodshed.
“Let’s get this over with, let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.” And it’s a very simple statement,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They have to do it. Let’s get this over with and get this over with quickly because we have to – you have to get back to normal and to the peace.
Biden and Netanyahu also discussed Iranian threats against Israel, Kirby said. Earlier this week, Iranian leaders vowed to retaliate after airstrike widely blamed on Israel destroyed the Iranian consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals. The Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi said Wednesday that the attack “will not go unanswered.”
Biden also renewed concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel seeks to eliminate Hamas after the militant group’s decision. Deadly attack of October 7. Vice President Kamala Harris, Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also joined the call.
Yet the Biden administration has moved quickly with arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but were only partially or not carried out at all. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s “daily list” of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound bombs ( 450 kilograms).
Officials said these transfers were approved before the list was released on Monday – the day Israeli airstrikes hit the World Central Kitchen aid convoy – and fell below the threshold for re-notification in Congress. They also noted that the bombs are not expected to be delivered to Israel until 2025.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said Thursday that plans to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to help increase the flow of aid to the territory continued to move forward. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said the pier would be commissioned by the end of the month or early May. Biden announced plans to build the floating pier during his State of the Union address last month.
Ryder said Israel had agreed to provide security at the coast during the transfer and distribution of aid, but details were still being worked out.
Israel acknowledged responsibility for the strikes against World Central Kitchen employees, but said the convoy was not targeted and their deaths were unintentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances of these murders.
Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli army for the strike and his organization suspended its work in Gaza.
“The Israeli government must put an end to these indiscriminate massacres. He must stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost. »
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants storm into southern Israelkilling some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
THE Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. According to researchers, in two months, the offensive has already caused more destruction than the destruction of Aleppo in Syria between 2012 and 2016, Mariupol in Ukraine or, proportionately, the Allied bombing of Germany during World War II. It killed more civilians than the US-led coalition during its three-year campaign against The Islamic State band.
___
AP writers Matthew Lee in Brussels, Jill Colvin in New York and Lolita C. Baldor, Colleen Long and Chris Megerian contributed.
