The White House is reportedly considering using its arms sales to Israel as a bargaining chip to try to defuse the Gaza conflict – while Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claims the war is going “better than expected.”
President Biden’s team recently ordered Pentagon officials to review additional US weaponry requested by Israel to see if it might be used to pressure the Jewish state to scale back its war on Palestinian Gaza, NBC reported Sunday, citing three current US officials and a former America. one.
The White House responded late Sunday by saying there had been no change “in our policy.”
“Israel has the right and duty to defend itself against the threat of Hamas, while complying with international humanitarian law and protecting civilian life, and we remain committed to supporting Israel in its fight against Hamas,” the White House National Security Council said in a statement.
“We have been doing that since Oct. 7, and will continue. There is no change in our policy,” the council added, referring to the October slaughter of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, a massacre that sparked the war.
But NBC’s sources claim that the Biden administration has considered slowing or halting the arms shipments sought by Israel.
President Biden’s administration has reportedly considered using its arms sales to Israel as leverage to reduce the intensity of the war in Gaza. AP Among the online weapons are those used for airstrikes right in Gaza. Ismael Mohamad/UPI/Shutterstock
Among the weapons are 155 mm artillery shells and Joint Direct Strike Weapons, which are used for precision airstrikes in Gaza, the source said.
The idea to press Israel with the weapons came as the death toll in Gaza topped 26,000 on Friday, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.
Biden and other US officials have repeatedly voiced concern about the high civilian death toll – concerns revived after reports of Israeli airstrikes on the refugee shelter in Khan Younis last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the war against Hamas to America’s war against the Islamic State terrorist group, stating that “it took the US and its allies nine months to defeat the radical forces in Mosul” in Iraq. AP The Israel-Hamas War has spanned nearly four months, with the Israel Defense Forces recently reducing their ground forces after taking control of half of Gaza. AFP via Getty Images Heavy airstrikes continue in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled. AFP via Getty Images
Biden has also taken a hit from his political base over the war, as many Democrats have criticized US arms sales to Israel in the conflict.
Even Netanyahu has acknowledged a rift between himself and Biden, but the Israeli prime minister said Sunday that the agreed-upon war goals remain the same.
“We agree on the goal of the war to destroy Hamas,” Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have differences of opinion, but we’ve worked to overcome them.”
The Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates Gaza’s death toll at more than 26,000, but it does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists. APAImages/Shutterstock US officials have repeatedly expressed concern over Israeli air strikes hitting or damaging civilian shelters. Xinhua/Shutterstock
Asked how the war went, he replied, “Better than many expected.”
Netanyahu compared the war against Hamas to America’s war against the Islamic State terrorist group, noting that “it took the US and its allies nine months to defeat the radical forces in Mosul” in Iraq.
“Mosul is smaller than Gaza and does not have a large underground infrastructure,” Netanyahu added. “We are now in the fourth month, but we are having a tough day.”
Although American intelligence estimates that less than a third of Hamas’s forces have been killed, with many destroyed cells resurfacing once the IDF moves, Netanyahu believes the war is going in Israel’s favor.
But what happened next continues to be muddled as America favors a two-state solution in which Gaza is governed by a reformed Palestinian Authority, while Netanyahu suggests that peace will remain elusive because of the Palestinians.
“[My colleagues] understand that the problem is that the Palestinians do not want peace with Israel but peace without Israel,” he claimed. “There is continued opposition among Palestinian leaders to the existence of the state of Israel.”
Without an end to the war, negotiations on the release of more than 130 hostages in Gaza also remain up in the air.
Netanyahu said a summit in Paris to discuss a possible hostage-release deal and temporary ceasefire with Hamas ended Sunday afternoon without reaching a deal.
“Not long ago, an intelligence summit in Europe ended with the participation of Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar, and reserve colonel Nitzan Alon with the head of the CIA, the prime minister of Qatar, and the Egyptian minister. intelligence,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“The meeting was defined as a constructive meeting. There are still significant gaps where the parties will continue to discuss this week in additional joint meetings,” the office added.
Although Hamas and Israel appear to have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the Jewish state has repeatedly rejected the terror group’s demands for the freedom of all prisoners and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
