Biden: invading Rafah would be a ‘red line,’ but we will never leave Israel
President Joe Biden warned that a ground invasion on Rafah by Israel would be a “red line” for the U.S., as he reiterated his commitment to securing a temporary cease-fire during the Holy month of Ramadan, which begins within a few days.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, President Biden said “it is a red line, but I will never leave Israel,” referring to the invasion of Rafah, which he has repeatedly urged Netanyahu’s government against.
“There’s no red line where I would cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them,” he said. “But there’s red lines where if he crosses them… you cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,” he added. He did not specify what the consequences would be if Israel did invade Rafah.
“There’s other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with the trauma caused by Hamas,” he said.
In addition to providing military support for Israel’s air defense system, the Biden administration has transferred weapons known to indiscriminately kill civilians when used in densely-populated urban areas like Gaza, such as 2000-pound bombs and 155mm artillery shells.
Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel more than helping Israel’
President Joe Biden’s increasingly public frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu has been building for months, which he addressed in an exclusive interview with MSNBC yesterday.
“He must, he must, he must pay attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken,” Biden emphasized, saying he thinks Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”
Expounding further on the civilian death toll in Gaza, Biden alluded to the rest of the world’s view, before adding that it is “contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Palestinians waiting on the beach in Gaza City for U.S. airdrops of humanitarian aid
Yesterday’s drop by the the U.S. Air Force and Army included 41,400 meals and 23,000 bottles of water, according to U.S. Central Command.
Dozens of children have died of hunger as more than half a million Gazans face starvation, UNRWA says
More than half a million Gazans are facing starvation in the enclave as dozens of children have already died of hunger, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
At least 20 children have “succumbed to starvation,” including a 14-day-old baby, the agency said.
UNRWA reports that “a 50 percent reduction of aid deliveries into Gaza stems from a lack of political will and security assurances from Israeli military operations amid the collapse of civil order.”
“When children are starting” to “die from starvation, that should be a warning like no other,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office, said at a news briefing Tuesday. “If not now, when is the time to pull the stops, break the glass, flood Gaza with the aid that it needs?”
As the humanitarian situation declines rapidly in Gaza, nations, including the U.S. have began airdropping food into the enclave. The U.S. distributed tens of thousands of meals as part of a joint Jordan-U.S. aid operation, which has been criticized as too little and ineffective.
One in six children in Gaza are now “dangerously malnourished,” according to the World Health Organization.
“Children who survived bombardment may not survive a famine,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
