Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would stand alone and "fight with our nails", in defiance of US threats to impose new restrictions on arms shipments if Israeli forces continue their attack on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was speaking Thursday after delegations from Israel and Hamas walked out of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo.
It is unclear whether the talks broke down or simply stalled, but the failure to reach an agreement in this week's series of meetings has raised fears of an imminent Israeli attack on Rafah.
Netanyahu appeared to ignore US President Joe Biden's public warning the previous night that if the Israeli army launched a major attack on the city, the United States would not provide bombs or artillery shells to support the 'operation.
“If we have to be alone, we will be. If we want to, we will fight with our nails. But we have more than just nails,” Netanyahu said, noting that Israel was approaching the 76th anniversary of its independence. “We had no weapons,” he said, referring to the 1948 war. There was an arms embargo against Israel, but through the strength of spirit, of heroism and unity among us, we won.
US officials were hoping to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough in hostage negotiations in exchange for a ceasefire, following Hamas' announcement on Monday that it had accepted the deal. The specific conditions he agreed to were unclear and Israel, although skeptical, agreed to send a delegation to Cairo to find out.
Reuters on Thursday quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying that the Israeli delegation had expressed reservations about Hamas' position and considered the Cairo round of talks to be over.
The official said the Israeli delegation was returning from the Egyptian capital and that Israel would continue its operations in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned.
The White House confirmed that CIA Director William Burns was also leaving Cairo, but denied negotiations had broken down.
“Director Burns will be leaving the region as planned, but the other delegations' interlocutors are still in talks in Cairo, so those talks are still ongoing,” national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “We’ll stay involved, hoping we can get something.”
But U.S. officials have expressed in private conversations their ability to prevent the Rafah attack, which Biden said Thursday would lead to new restrictions on U.S. arms supplies, including bombs and shells. artillery.
Last week, the administration halted the delivery of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, indicating it was prepared to take steps to end the attack on Rafah.
Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israeli army could carry out planned operations without American support. “The army has weapons for the missions it plans, as well as for the missions in Rafah. We have what we need.”
A major attack on the city of Rafah would threaten the lives of more than a million Palestinians who have taken refuge there and who have received no serious provision in terms of shelter, food, water and medical support from the part of Israel.
Their survival has already been made more precarious by the closure on Monday of the two crossing points into southern Gaza, Rafah and Keren Shalom, when the Israeli army launched an operation aimed at taking control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, east of the city. .
Rafah is running out of fuel and its hospitals are at risk of being overcrowded, medical staff say.
The Keren Shalom crossing was officially reopened on Thursday, but humanitarian trucks were unable to travel on the roads due to security concerns and damage caused by the fighting.
Meanwhile, very little aid is entering Gaza through the northern gate of the Erez crossing, near where hundreds of thousands of people cut off by the Israeli offensive are at imminent risk of starvation, according to the Nations United and humanitarian agencies.
Alexandra Sayeh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children, said access via the Erez crossing was intermittent.
“The Erez terminal has never operated at full capacity,” she said during an online press conference. “The humanitarian aid needed to avert the famine expected in March could not arrive. »
On Thursday evening, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that it had temporarily closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem following an arson attack by Israeli protesters.
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Cyprus announced Thursday that a first aid ship had left the island bound for a U.S.-made floating dock, where humanitarian aid was supposed to be unloaded and distributed. However, U.S. engineers have yet to connect a bridge to the Gaza coast, through which aid is supposed to be transported to land, and many questions remain unanswered about how the aid will then be distributed.
U.S. officials said the capture of the Rafah crossing was a tactical operation that caused few casualties. However, the UN said intensifying IDF attacks in the Rafah area had caused the displacement of more than 100,000 people - the largest population movement in Gaza in several months. The mass displacement of people in the event of a large-scale attack on Rafah would be much greater.
In his remarks Thursday, Kirby made clear what type of operations in Gaza City would lead to more U.S. weapons restrictions. “I think we all understand what a major ground operation looks like in terms of the size of the forces involved, the types of operations that can involve large forces, large movements, lots of civilian casualties, lots of damaged infrastructure – rather than more precise, more targeted and limited types of operations. » “Just like we are seeing now at the Rafah crossing. »
He added: “A lot will depend on what we see Israel doing in Rafah and its planning for Rafah. »
After warning of new restrictions on arms deliveries, Biden faced a backlash from Israeli and US Republican politicians, who accused him of failing Israel in the face of threats existential.
“We must continue the war until Hamas is completely eliminated and our hostages return home,” Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister, wrote on X. “This includes complete occupation of Rafah, and the sooner the better. »
Itamar Ben Gvir, another far-right minister, posted the phrase “Biden – heart emoji – Hamas” on social media, but later said Israel should “respect our friends but also fight our enemies without holding taking into account other factors and without concessions.
The populist politician's previous tweet drew a rebuke from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who called Biden a "great friend of the State of Israel" and criticized "baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets" during a speech marking D-Day.
Yair Lapid, leader of Israel's main opposition party, called for Ben Gvir's dismissal because he "endangers every soldier of the Israeli army and every citizen of the State of Israel."
Kirby said Thursday that Israeli forces “are still receiving these [weapons], the vast majority of everything they need to defend themselves.”
“We can also help them actually target leaders, including Mr. Sinwar, which we do frankly and regularly with the Israelis,” Kirby added, in what appears to be the first U.S. confirmation that the United States is providing assistance to Israelis. . Israelis are targeting Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis.
Dr. Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Biden's announcement, far from putting pressure on Netanyahu, could strengthen the Israeli prime minister's position.
“Some say Netanyahu destroyed relations between Israel and the United States, but others say it shows that we are alone and that the lesson of history is that we cannot believe that anyone will always be with us in every way. “That’s what Netanyahu was saying and that’s the dominant narrative in the minds of most Israelis, so this whole issue will strengthen Netanyahu’s political position,” Freeman said.