For the first time, President Joe Biden attempted to use U.S. assistance to influence Israeli military actions on Thursday by threatening to withhold funding for Israel’s attack in Gaza until it took proactive measures to save civilians and humanitarian workers.
In response to a fatal Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers, which prompted fresh calls from Biden’s fellow Democrats to impose limits on U.S. funding to Israel, Biden issued a warning that was repeated in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Israel claimed that the strike was an error.
About US Policy
White House national security spokesperson Admiral John Kirby declined to discuss the specific policy alternatives the US was evaluating in the event that Israel did not make “tangible” and “concrete” changes during a press briefing that followed the statement. He said that within “hours and days,” the US expected major changes, such the opening of border crossings and the unrestricted transit of humanitarian relief vehicles.
The declaration was made following the deaths of seven aid workers by Israeli airstrikes. Israel reportedly announced that it would change its war tactics in Gaza as a result of the strikes, which claimed the lives of nationals of the UK, Australia, Poland, and the United States as well as a Canadian citizen.
The pressure on Israel to end its war against Hamas, which it launched in the wake of the terror attacks on October 7, 2023, has increased in recent months. South Africa charged Israel with committing genocide against the Gazan people in January. These accusations were echoed in a harsh report released last week by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Albanese concluded that “the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the unveiling of this policy is an Israeli state policy of genocidal violence toward the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that as of April 3, 2024, 32,975 Palestinian fatalities have been registered, including 13,000 children, despite the fact that conflict casualties are notoriously difficult to estimate. In the same time frame, about 1,200