UN court order demanding that Israel halt its Gaza offensive further isolates the US position
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.N. court order that Israel halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has deepened a rift with the United States over a military operation that has drawn growing international condemnation but which U.S. officials, at least for now, describe as limited and targeted.
Friday’s decision by the International Court of Justice in The Hague adds to the pressure facing an increasingly isolated Israel, and comes just days after Norway, Ireland and Spain said they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor request for arrest by a separate international court. arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders.
The Biden administration stands apart from the world community – while it is opposed to a major offensive in Rafah, the administration also insists that the steps taken so far by its close ally Israel have not crossed red lines.
Government officials have so far appeared determined to continue military and political support for Israel following last October’s deadly Hamas attack, while also pressuring their ally to avoid a full-scale military operation in densely populated Rafah .
“What we have seen to date in terms of Israeli military operations in that area has been more targeted and limited, and does not involve major military operations in the heart of densely populated urban areas,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a briefing from the White House. this week.
But he added: “We now have to see what unfolds from here.”
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the government’s internal assessment of the situation, said the operation in Gaza “has not yet reached the heart of Rafah, which takes us into the most densely populated areas brings.”
Earlier this month, the White House announced it was halting a shipment of some 3,500 bombs, including massive 2,000-pound explosives that the Biden administration said would cause civilian deaths. President Joe Biden warned during a CNN interview that “if they invade Rafah, I will not provide the weapons that have historically been used to take on Rafah.”
U.S. officials, in pressuring Israel, had suggested that a major operation was a red line that would undermine stalled negotiations on a deal on the return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and prompt Biden to further roll back what weapons he Israel would send.
But the tone in the White House appeared to take a marked change this week after Sullivan returned from a visit to Israel, where he said he had been briefed on “refinements” in Israel’s plan to root out Hamas in Rafah, and to Saudi -Arabia. .
During Sullivan’s talks with Netanyahu and other officials during the trip, the Israeli side raised many of Biden’s concerns about his plans for Rafah, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
The official said the administration did not greenlight the Israeli plan, but the change in planning from Israeli officials suggested they were taking Biden’s concerns seriously.
That assessment may provide little comfort to the Palestinians still trapped in Rafah – the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, and the site of a crucial border crossing for aid. More than 1 million people have sought refuge there in recent months after escaping fighting elsewhere, but around 900,000 people have now fled the city.
Israel has brought hundreds of trucks through the other major border crossing, Kerem Shalom, but the UN and aid agencies say Israeli military operations make it dangerous for them to pick up food, water and other supplies for starving Palestinians.
The U.S. Agency for International Development says Gaza needs a steady flow of 600 truckloads a day of food and other aid to reverse the onset of what the heads of USAID and the U.N. World Food Program call famine in the north and prevent it expands to the north. South.
Even as an American pier begins to bring in a small amount of aid by sea, Gaza has received only a fraction of the amount of aid needed since the start of the Israeli offensive.
Leading international humanitarian groups welcomed the International Court of Justice ruling because of the pressure they hoped it would bring. Doctors Without Borders said it was confirmation of how “catastrophic” the situation had become for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and “the desperate need for an immediate expansion of humanitarian assistance.”
There is no practical mechanism to force Israel to comply with the court order, which, in addition to ordering a halt to the offensive, also mandates an increase in humanitarian aid to the region and access to Gaza for war crimes investigators.
Israel showed no signs that it planned to change course after Friday’s ruling. The war in Gaza followed an October 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, about a quarter of them soldiers, while another 250 were captured. At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians.
The court’s demands go beyond what the US has currently asked of Israel, although Washington has nevertheless indicated that it remains opposed to a more drastic operation in Gaza.
“When it comes to Rafah, we have long expressed our concerns about a large-scale military attack on Rafah and the damage it could cause to the civilian population without a clear and credible plan to protect them,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs. Antony Blinken said this to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Blinken also reiterated that the administration does not believe a major offensive would achieve the results Israel wants to achieve, “namely dealing effectively and sustainably with Hamas.”
“Our concerns about a large-scale military attack in Rafah remain,” he said. “We have other ways to address the Hamas challenge that we believe can be more effective and sustainable.”
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Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.