It will be interesting to hear what Blinken says to Congress tomorrow when he reports on Israel's compliance with international law. Matthew Miller used a lot of "we're concerned" and "we want to see Israel do better" in today's WH briefing but did imply strongly that if Israel full on invades Rafah, arms may be withheld. He also stated that Israel has committed to open the Rafah border by tomorrow and allow humanitarian aid in along with needed fuel. Reporting is that US security force will take control of the Gaza side of the border but he refused to comment on that.Della wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2024 4:15 pmOh damn!WellPreserved wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2024 2:42 pm"According to the White House, Israel told the U.S. that its Monday night operation in Rafah "was limited, and designed to cut off from Hamas' ability to smuggle weapons and funds into Gaza."
A major point made by President Biden in a call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday was that aid continued to enter Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said. "Israel has committed to reopen Kerem Shalom at President Biden's requests, and we need to see it happen soon."
On the hostage release negotiations happening in Cairo, Kirby said "a close assessment of the two sides' [Hamas and Israel] positions suggests that they should be able to close the remaining gaps," and that CIA chief Bill Burns is in attendance to represent the U.S.
Kirby noted that the U.S. did indeed communicate properly with Israel the conditions of the proposal. "We absolutely had sustained ongoing normal interactions, as we have throughout the beginning of this conflict, with our Israeli counterparts as the proposal was working through the process. Nobody was hiding any footballs from anybody, we were being open and transparent.""
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/202 ... 1706842438
Also said that Israel calling for evacuation of 100,000 Gazans from Eastern Rafah is not sufficient and they must show that those who leave have a place to go with appropriate shelter, food, medical services, etc. At this time they have not demonstrated that. Also stated that Israel has to assume that more than 100,000 will leave Rafah and have enough services in place for the additional evacuees.
Whew. Things are happening quickly.