Ties between Washington and Tel Aviv have rarely seemed so strained. While, according to witnesses, the Israeli air force continues to bomb the Gaza Strip on Wednesday April 10 despite the efforts of mediators to secure a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, the American president, Joe Biden, once again criticized the war policy pursued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Palestinian enclave.
“I think what he’s doing is wrong. I do not agree with his approach,” Mr. Biden said on Tuesday during an interview with the Spanish-language channel Univision, in response to a question about Israel’s conduct of the war.
These are among the US president's harshest comments against the Israeli leader as the United States displays growing impatience with the ongoing humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory besieged by the Israeli army. Joe Biden once again considered it “scandalous” that the humanitarian convoy of the NGO World Central Kitchen was targeted by an Israeli strike, killing seven members of the NGO.
"What I'm asking is that the Israelis call for a ceasefire, that they allow for the next six or eight weeks, full access to food and medicine coming into the country," he said. he asserted.
Despite warnings from foreign capitals, including from his American ally, Mr. Netanyahu says he is determined to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, which he presents as the last major bastion of Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip. . This border town with Egypt is home, according to the UN, to around a million and a half people, the majority displaced, leading to fears of a worsening human toll in the event of a land offensive there.
“No excuses.”
The American president spoke on the telephone last week with the Israeli Prime Minister, raising for the first time the possibility of conditioning American aid to Israel on “tangible” measures on this humanitarian situation. He further said he spoke with “everyone from the Saudis, to the Jordanians and the Egyptians. They're ready to go. They’re ready to bring in that food.”
“I believe there is no excuse for not providing medicine and food to people in need. This must happen now,” Joe Biden said.
The United States provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, but demands that Israel do more to allow humanitarian aid in. While they welcomed the initial measures announced by Israel as the “temporary” opening of new crossing points in Gaza, notably at Erez in the North, they are awaiting “results”.
Relatives of American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were also received by Vice-President Kamala Harris at the White House while negotiations for a truce in Gaza accompanied by the release of the hostages continue. “We want results. We want our loved ones back,” Rachel Goldberg, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin is among the hostages, told reporters.
