Protect civilians in Gaza or US policy will change

Trump says Israel ‘losing PR war’ in Gaza

FE Team | Published: April 05, 2024 21:24:56

US President Joe Biden (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

WASHINGTON, Apr 05 (Agencies): US President Joe Biden warned Israel of a sharp shift in his policy over the Gaza war Thursday amid growing frustration with Benjamin Netanyahu and mounting domestic pressure in a US election year.
A tense phone call between the two leaders appeared to yield at least some results, as Netanyahu's office announced within hours it would temporarily allow more aid to flow into Gaza.
President Joe Biden threatened to condition support for Israel's offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians, seeking for the first time to leverage US aid to influence Israeli military behaviour.
Biden's warning, relayed in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, followed a deadly Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers that spurred new calls from Biden's fellow Democrats to place conditions on US aid to Israel. Israel said the attack was a mistake.
The US president, a lifelong supporter of Israel, has resisted pressure to withhold aid or halt the shipment of weapons to the country. His warning marked the first time he has threatened to potentially condition aid, a development that could change the dynamic of the nearly six-month-old war.
Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," the White House said of the leaders' phone call. It said the call lasted about 30 minutes.
The president "made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps," the White House said in a statement.
Biden calls for 'immediate ceasefire,' urges hostage deal
White House expects to see new Israeli measures in 'coming hours and days'
Washington is Israel's top weapons supplier and the Biden administration has mostly provided a diplomatic shield for it at the United Nations.
At a briefing after the call, White House spokesperson John Kirby declined to elaborate on any specific changes the US would make in its policy toward Israel and Gaza.
He said Washington hoped to see an announcement of Israeli steps in the "coming hours and days."
By suggesting a shift in US policy toward Gaza was possible if Israel did not address the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave, Biden channeled his own frustration along with mounting pressure from his left-leaning political base in the Democratic Party to stop the killings and alleviate hunger among innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, former US president Donald Trump has said that Israel is "losing the PR war" in Gaza because of the images coming out of the territory and must end the conflict quickly. "Every night, they're releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn't be releasing tapes like that," Trump said in an interview broadcast on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Thursday.
"They're doing, that's why they're losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war," he said.
UK PM Sunak faces growing pressure
to stop arms sales to Israel
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing growing political pressure to stop selling weapons to Israel after seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed by an Israeli air attack on Gaza.
Three opposition parties and some MPs in the governing Conservative Party said on Wednesday the British government should consider suspending arms sales.
Iran vows to punish Israel for officers killed in embassy strike
Iran reiterated its pledge to punish Israel on Friday at a funeral for seven officers killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria this week.
State television showed demonstrators carrying pictures of those killed and banners with slogans such as "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".
The dead included one of Iran's top soldiers, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was visiting the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.