The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has committed this morning to “guarantee that the Kerem Shalom crossing – west of Israel and border with southern Gaza – is open for humanitarian aid to those in need”, stated the White House in a statement, after Joe Biden’s brief call to the Israeli leader from the White House. “The president has reiterated his clear position on Rafah,” the statement concludes, recalling Washington’s warnings for Israel not to invade this city south of Gaza.
Defying its repeated warnings in recent months, Israel’s war cabinet has warned Palestinians to evacuate Rafah, preventing an imminent attack. The president already told him in April that invading this city would be a “mistake,” given that more than a million Palestinian civilians have found refuge in the south after fleeing bombing from the north.
The Biden administration has repeatedly warned Netanyahu that his support in Gaza will depend on protecting civilians and humanitarian workers. However, the bombings on the civilian population have not stopped and the billion-dollar assistance – of 3.8 billion dollars a year – remains unquestioned. Last month, in fact, Congress approved an additional $26 billion in military assistance to Israel.
As protests over Gaza continue on college campuses across the country, the White House is ramping up its efforts to achieve a ceasefire. The president has invited the King of Jordan Abdullah II to eat at the White House today, in a meeting closed to the press that will focus on the need to cease hostilities in Gaza.
Jordan is a key US ally with the ability to mediate influence in the Middle East. The last time his king visited the White House in February, he called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that the attack on Rafah would amount to a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
The meeting comes after this weekend’s round of failed negotiations in Cairo, between representatives of Hamas, the director of the CIA (William Burns) and mediators from Egypt and Qatar, to which no Israeli delegation showed up. The talks continue this Monday in Doha, the capital of Qatar. According to the White House statement, Biden has “updated the Prime Minister (Netanyahu) on efforts to reach an agreement on the hostages, including through the talks being held today.”
Israel’s warning to Rafah has come in response to the missile attack that killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday, and which Tel Aviv’s war cabinet attributes to Hamas militants.
On Monday, the international community expressed its rejection of the Israeli incursion into Rafah. “Israel’s evacuation orders to Rafah civilians portend the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable,” tweeted the head of foreign policy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, urging Israel to “give up” the offensive and adding that “the EU, with the International Community, can and must act to prevent such a scenario.”
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also spoken out, which in a statement has described the probable attack as an “escalation action” with “serious humanitarian risks.” In this way, he has called on Tel Aviv to “practice self-containment at this delicate moment for negotiations.” In the same sense, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has assured that “another massacre of Palestinians is underway” and has called on world leaders to “act now to prevent it”, because, otherwise, it would be “a “indelible march” for the international community.
