Despite visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning Israel of ‘diplomatic isolation’ and European Union’s threat to cut arms supplies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his country’s determination to destroy Hamas and free hostages by entering the terrorist stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The planned offensive on Hamas’s last standing bastion of Rafah “risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long term security and standing,” Blinken warned after meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Friday.
The Israeli prime minister vowed that his country would go it alone if the Biden administration withheld its support at this crucial juncture in the war. “And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to – we will do it alone,” Netanyahu said in a video massage posted on his Twitter account.
The CNN reported Blinken’s warning:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emerged from meetings in Tel Aviv emphasizing his clear warning to the Israeli government about the perilous stakes of an incursion into Rafah, but with little evidence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to heed his words.The top US diplomat told Netanyahu and the war cabinet Friday that the US remains committed to the “lasting defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah,” but “a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it.”“It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing,” Blinken told reporters after his meetings Friday. “It risks killing more civilians, it risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Israel was mindful of humanitarian aspects of conducting an operation in Rafah, Netanyahu assured. “I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from the war zones and of course also take care of the humanitarian needs and we are working to that end,” the Israeli leader added.
Last week, the Israeli government approved a military plan which included an orderly evacuation of Rafah, news reports suggest.
The Jerusalem Post reported Netanyahu’s response to Blinken:
United States failure to support a major military operation in Rafah won’t prevent Israel from conducting one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Blinken when the two men in Tel Aviv.“There is no way for us to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there,” he said.“I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the USA, but if we have to – we will do it alone,” he added.Netanyahu assured Blinken that he “greatly appreciates the fact that for more than five months we have been standing together in the war against Hamas.“I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from the war zones and of course also take care of the humanitarian needs and we are working to that end,” he said.
In a bid to pressure Israel into halting its counter-terrorism operation against Hamas, launched after the mass rape and killing of at least 1200 Israelis on October 7, the Biden administration has reportedly slowed down the delivery of crucial military supplies.
As the Gaza ground offensive enters its fifth month, officials in Jerusalem “noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies to Israel,” The New York Sun reported last week. The IDF is “running out of 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells, as well as sensitive guidance equipment,” the news outlet disclosed.
The European Union is already pushing U.S. and Western allies to cut defense supplies to Israel as the conflict with Hamas reaches it final stages.
Last month, EU’s de facto Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, issued a ‘thinly veiled’ threat to Israel, the Reuters reported February 13:
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday made a thinly veiled call on the U.S. to cut arms supplies to Israel due to high civilian casualties in its war in Gaza. (…)”Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU development aid ministers in Brussels.”If the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe we have to think about the provision of arms,” he added.
A U.S. bid to have the U.N. Security Council call for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday, after Russia and China vetoed the American resolution that included some of Washington’s strongest language since the start of the war.The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct in a war that has killed about 30,000 people and reduced much of the enclave to ruins. The administration has been pressuring Israel not to attack the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have sought refuge, and to enable more aid to enter the territory. (…)The U.S. resolution said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” Representatives from the three dissenting countries and Guyana said it did not go far enough in demanding or compelling a cease-fire.
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