by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition U.S. support for Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip on concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians and aid workers. , using for the first time American aid as leverage to influence the military behavior of the Jewish state.
This warning, made during a telephone interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes three days after an Israeli army strike in the Gaza Strip killed seven employees of the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), including British and Australian nationals.
The incident, described as “accidental” by the IDF, fueled pressure on Joe Biden from his Democratic peers so that Washington sets conditions for Israel for the aid it provides.
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Joe Biden, a long-time supporter of Israel, has so far refused to suspend American aid or arms deliveries to the Jewish state.
The warning issued Thursday by the American president could influence military operations carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Hamas attack, during which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others kidnapped. Some of these hostages have since been released.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start, almost six months ago, of the siege of the Gaza Strip, which was ravaged and where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. Almost all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced by the fighting.
PRESSURES
Joe Biden clearly expressed to Benjamin Netanyahu “the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable measures to remedy civilian harm, respond to human suffering and guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers”, the White House reported.
He also said that “American policy towards Gaza will be determined by our assessment of the immediate actions taken by Israel”, added the American presidency in a press release, specifying that the telephone conversation between the two leaders had lasted less than half an hour.
Washington is Israel’s main arms supplier and has a history of protecting it diplomatically at the United Nations. The United States, however, allowed last month the adoption by the UN Security Council of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, by abstaining from the vote, while they had vetoed several texts since the start of the war in the enclave.
During a press briefing held after the telephone exchange between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council refused to give details on the specific changes that could be made by the United States to its policy regarding Israel and the Gaza Strip.
John Kirby said he hoped an announcement on measures taken by Israel would be made “in the next few hours or days.”
Signaling that a change in US policy on Gaza was possible if Israel did not respond to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave, Joe Biden expressed his frustration and also responded to the increased pressures he faces, including from part of Democratic voters a few months before the presidential election, to force Israel to show restraint.
NEED FOR A CEASEFIRE
Asked about possible changes in US policy, Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Tal Heinrich told US television channel Fox News that it would be “something Washington will have to explain”.
Michelin-starred chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK), an NGO that provides meals to people in need, said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that WCK employees were deliberately targeted, “systematically, car by car “, by the strikes of the Israeli army.
Israel pledged Thursday to review its military tactics in the Gaza Strip after expressing “sadness” over what it called an “accident.”
Ahead of the telephone interview between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House indicated that the American president was outraged and heartbroken because of this incident, but that he had not yet brought fundamental change in the support provided by Washington to Israel in the war against Hamas.
Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu that an immediate ceasefire was essential to “stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the US presidency reported. He urged the Israeli leader to “immediately seal an agreement” with Hamas to recover the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack.
During a trip to Brussels, where he participated in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel to attach the utmost importance to human lives and to increase flows aid arriving in Gaza.
“If we don’t see the changes we want to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he told reporters.
(Jeff Mason and Steve Holland, with Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Matt Spetalnick; French version Jean Terzian)
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