Biden administration addresses crisis with Israel over use of American weapons; tensions rise in Rafah

While they were sending American weapons to Israel an unprecedented crisis is occurring in a relationship between Washington e Tel AvivCNN revealed the content of a report delivered in the last few hours Department of State on Capitol Hill. In the document the Biden administration says it is “reasonable to believe” that weapons received from the US were used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways “unsustainable” by international humanitarian law “or by established good practices to minimize harm to civilians”. And the news was published just before the Israeli army called for new evacuations in a city Rafah.

The document – A report, confirms the US news channel, “that is strictly urgent towards Israel’s military campaign budget”. An investigation into possible violations is ongoing, but the report noted that United States They “lack complete information to assess” whether US weapons have been “specifically used” in alleged violations of international humanitarian law. The report, which covers the period from the start of the war with Hamas on October 7 to the end of April, did not find that Israel withheld humanitarian aid in Gaza in violation of US law .

The document is drawing criticism from the left and from Republicans, for other reasons. Among the reasons for discussion, is the fact that it is celebrated at the same time not having received enough information to definitively conclude that they were used for human rights violations. That means US military aid will continue to come from Israel. The difficult diplomatic compromise chosen by the US administration, which is in the 46-page report delivered to Congress at the very moment of the greatest tension with Israel, came after Joe Biden threatened some materials suspend arms if the offensive in Rafah continues, to an unhappy end for both. they, the Republicans, read it as a dangerous abandonment of the policy of support for Israel, and those – the left dem – who have been asking Biden for some time to suspend this aid in the face of more than 34 thousand Palestinians who have been killed, mostly civilians, in the seven months of conflict that. “The administration gave up a damaging political assessment for Israelwhile publicly announcing that he is suspending the shipment of several precision weapons,” Republican Senator Jim Risch said, Politico reports, adding that this is a move by Biden “trying to convince his far-right voters at the expense of a close ally in the middle of a rational war against Hamas terrorists.”

Rafah – At the same time, tension is still very high. The Israeli army asked the people of other areas of the city Rafah to evacuate their homes, also using leaflets in Arabic, while fighting hard in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip. The IDF’s Arabic spokesman, Avitai Adraee, published a list of new areas to evacuate in addition to and distinct from the eastern ones announced last week. The new areas to be evacuated relate to Shaboura camps and the neighborhoods of Geneina and Khirbat al-Adas. The IDF estimates that some 300,000 Palestinians have already evacuated Rafahin southern Gaza, for the designated humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi and Khan Younis areas.

At the same time, two Israeli sources told the Times of Israel that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is not hiding in Rafah, in the southern part of the Strip where the IDF operation is proceed in the eastern areas of the city. Both sources said that Israel currently does not know for sure where Sinwar is, but he announced information that the leader of Hamas is still in Gaza and that he is hiding in tunnels in the area of ​​Khan Yunis about 7 kilometers from Rafah. Sinwar is Israel’s top wanted man along with Qassam Brigade commander Mohammed Deif.

Bombs also continue in Stry. “Dozens of civilians, including a journalist, his wife and son, were killed and others wounded” in Israeli air raids in various parts of the Gaza Strip, according to what the Palestinian news agency Wafa writes. According to Wafa, which cites local sources, the reporter Bahaa Okasha and the members of his family died in his home in the camp of Yabalia in the north. Other victims in the center of Gaza City, where the home of the Siam family was hit. Ten dead in Al-Zawaida, in the middle of the Strip, where the house of the Al-Khatib family was hit. Finally, bombs in the Rafah area.