2024-05-09 17:00:55
“This is a heavy and very disappointing statement from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Israel‘s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, told Israel’s Kan radio. This is Israel’s first reaction to Biden‘s warning.
Defying international pressure, Israel has sent tanks to Rafah and is conducting raids on the city.
“If they go into Rafah, then I will not deliver the weapons that were used (..) to deal with the cities,” the US president said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Wednesday. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other methods they (Israel) use to attack population centers,” Biden said.
Erdan replied that Israel’s enemies – Iran, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, against which Israel is at war in the Gaza Strip, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah – would interpret Biden’s comments as “something that gives them hope of success.”
“If Israel is denied access to an area as important and central as Rafah, where thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders are being held, how exactly can we achieve our goals?” asked Erdan.
“At the end of the day, the State of Israel will have to do what it deems necessary to do for the safety of its citizens,” he added.
AFP journalists reported heavy shelling in Rafah on Thursday morning, and later the Israeli army also announced an attack on Hamas positions further north in the central Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces captured the Rafah border crossing on the border with Egypt on Tuesday.
2024-05-09 17:00:55