Biden faces dissent within own administration

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (BBC/Reuters/AP): US President Joe Biden is under growing pressure to rein in Israel's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The growing civilian casualties and desperate humanitarian conditions have alarmed Arab allies, but also stirred an extraordinary level of criticism from within his own administration.
"I'm stunned by the intensity," said Aaron David Miller, who worked as an adviser on Arab-Israeli relations during a 25 year tenure at the US State Department. "I've never seen anything quite like this."
Several internal memos have been sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken through a channel, established after the Vietnam war, which allows employees to register disapproval of policy.
An open letter is also said to be circulating at the Agency for International Development (USAID). Another has been dispatched to the White House by political appointees and staff members representing dozens of government agencies. Another to members of Congress by staffers on Capitol Hill.
Much of this dissent is private, and the signatures are often anonymous out of concerns the protest might affect jobs, so the full scale of it is not clear. But according to leaks cited by multiple reports, hundreds of people have signed on to the wave of opposition.
An administration official has told the BBC that these concerns are very real and there are active discussions about them. At a minimum, the letters are asking that President Biden demand an immediate ceasefire, and push Israel much harder to allow for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Israeli air strikes kill
32 in south Gaza
Israeli air strikes on residential blocks in south Gaza killed at least 32 Palestinians on Saturday, medics said, after Israel again warned civilians to relocate as it turns to attacking Hamas in the enclave's south after subduing the north.
Such a move could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from the Israeli assault on Gaza City to move again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, worsening a dire humanitarian crisis.
"We're asking people to relocate. I know it's not easy for many of them, but we don't want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire," Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC on Friday.
Communications
blackout mars
aid coordination in Gaza
The United Nations was forced Friday to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of lack of fuel.
Israel announced that it will allow two tanker trucks of fuel into Gaza each day for the U.N. and communication systems. That amount is half of what the U.N. said it needs for lifesaving functions for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, including powering water systems, hospitals, bakeries and the trucks delivering aid.
Israel has barred entry of fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means. It has also blocked food, water and other supplies except for a trickle of aid from Egypt that aid workers say falls far short of what's needed.
Israel will allow two trucks
of fuel a day into Gaza
Israel says it will allow two fuel trucks a day to enter the Gaza Strip, after pressure to do so from the US. A US State Department official says around 140,000 litres of fuel will be allowed in every two days.
Most of that is intended for trucks delivering aid, as well as supporting the UN in providing water and sanitation, the official said. The rest is for mobile phone and internet services, which had been cut off due to a lack of fuel.
On Friday, the company which provides Gaza's communications said that its services were returning after receiving some fuel via Unrwa, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees. The US official said Washington exerted considerable pressure on Israel to push this fuel agreement through.
The deal had been agreed in principle weeks ago, the official added, but was delayed by Israel for two reasons. Israeli officials told the US that fuel had not actually run out in southern Gaza, and they also wanted to wait and see if they could negotiate a hostage deal first.