The short version
- Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, calls US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms supplies to Israel in the event of an invasion of Rafah very disappointing.
- Biden has said that the US will not send Israel weapons if Israel carries out the announced ground invasion of Rafah in the very south of Gaza.
- According to Biden, the US will continue to supply weapons that Israel uses in its defense, including in the Iron Dome air defense system, but not weapons and artillery shells.
- Biden acknowledged that US bombs have been used to kill civilians in Gaza.
- The decision to withhold arms shipments to Israel is referred to as a warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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– This is a difficult and disappointing move to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the start of the war, says Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan to the Israeli broadcaster Kan.
It is the first Israeli reaction to come after Biden’s statements. On the night of Thursday Norwegian time, he said that the US will not send weapons to Israel if its forces invade Rafah on the Gaza Strip.
According to Erdan, the US decision will significantly weaken Israel’s ability to neutralize Hamas’s power.
Strong reactions
Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir writes “Hamas ♥ Biden” on X Thursday morning, after the weapons announcement from Biden.
Gvir represents the Otzma Yehudit party which is on the far right in Israeli politics.
The tweet has caused reactions, including from Yair Lapid, who is the leader of the political opposition in the country:
– If Netanyahu does not fire Ben-Gvir today, he is putting all IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens in danger, writes Lapid.
The US has historically sent large amounts of military aid to Israel, and the scope has increased after Hamas’s attack on October 7, writes the AP news agency.
Rolled into Rafah
Despite the fact that, according to Biden, Israel has not started the ground invasion, Israeli tanks rolled into the city in the very south of Gaza on the night of Tuesday.
The US president says this is causing problems in the region.
– They have not entered the population centers. What they did is right on the border. And that causes problems with Egypt, which I have worked hard to make sure we have a relationship with, Biden says.
According to the health authorities in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, almost 35,000 people have been killed so far. According to the Palestinian health authorities, the minimum 60 killed in the last 24 hours.
Israel’s former head of military production and procurement denied on Thursday, according to Reuters, that the country can do without US weapons and said that Israel may be forced to buy weapons elsewhere, according to Israel State Radio.
– Diplomatic message
Itamar Yaar, who was previously deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, calls the decision from the US symbolic.
– I think it is a kind of diplomatic message to Netanyahu that he must think more about American interests than what he has done in recent months, he tells AP.
– As of now, this will not affect Israel’s capacity, but it is a form of signal, a “be careful”.
The messages about the arms deliveries are met with strong criticism by Republican leaders in the US Congress.
In a joint letter to Biden, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell demand answers. They write that the ceasefire could “embolden Israel’s enemies and undermine trust in the United States”.
