2024-03-14 22:17:57
US President Joe Biden may limit military aid to Israel if the Israeli military launches a large-scale ground operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
As Day.Az reports with reference to Interfax, sources told Politico about this.
Biden has not yet made a decision on limiting future arms sales, the sources said. However, he may well do so if Israel launches a new operation.
As the newspaper notes, “Biden’s willingness to take this step reflects the extreme tension in his relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” An Israeli military official told the publication that an Israeli invasion of Rafah is not imminent. He said civilians needed to be evacuated and the military needed to be prepared, and even if Netanyahu gave the order today, the operation could not begin immediately.
Additionally, Israel has yet to share a “credible and feasible” plan to protect civilians in Rafah with the Biden administration, the US official said. He added that the US wants to familiarize itself with it before giving the green light to Israel’s advance.
In February, Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz warned that if the hostages were not released by Ramadan, military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah would be expanded.
In recent months, some 1.5 million Palestinians from northern and central Gaza have gathered in Rafah. The UN warned that they had nowhere else to go, and the operation in Gaza was fraught with numerous civilian casualties.
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