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"If we have to, we will fight with our nails," the Israeli prime minister said in response to the American leader's warning against a major Rafah invasion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday responded to U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold shipments of arms used by the Israel Defense Forces to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians by declaring that his far-right government would continue its assault on Gaza with or without American help.
"If we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone," Netanyahu said in a video ahead of next week's anniversary of Israel's establishment in 1948, largely via the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs. "I have already said that if we have to, we will fight with our nails."
Echoing Netanyahu, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF already has the "necessary weapons" to wage war, "including in Rafah," where over 1 million people forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents, all of them bracing for a full-scale Israeli invasion.
The prime minister's remarks came a day after Biden threatened to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah—even as critics noted that Israeli forces have already attacked and entered the city. Some accused Biden of walking back a previous "red line" warning against any assault on Rafah.
Common Dreamsreported Tuesday that Biden is delaying shipments of two types of bombs to Israel in order to send a message that the president's tolerance for what he called Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gazan civilians is waning.
However, observers noted that Biden recently signed off on $14.3 billion in emergency armed assistance for Israel atop the nearly $4 billion the key ally already receives from Washington each year. The Biden administration has quietly approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, while pushing for billions of dollars worth of additional deals, including advanced fighter jets.
Biden has also repeatedly bypassed Congress to fast-track weapons transfers to Israel as it wages what the International Court of Justice in January called a "plausibly" genocidal war that's killed, injured, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—since October 7.
The U.S. administration also provides diplomatic cover for Israel's policies and practices in the form of United Nations Security Council vetoes.
Despite all this support—which comes as most election-year voters supporting Biden's Democratic Party believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza—Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday tweeted, "Hamas ❤️ Biden."
"There is nothing humanitarian about Israel's proposal to push civilians into 'humanitarian islands' in Gaza."
Aid groups reacted with alarm Thursday to the Israeli military's stated plan to transfer much of the population of Rafah—a small city in southern Gaza that's currently packed with more than 1.5 million people—to so-called "humanitarian islands" in the central part of the enclave.
William Bell, the head of Middle East policy and advocacy at Christian Aid, called the proposal "a preposterous idea" that the international community must reject in favor of an immediate, permanent cease-fire and a massive surge of humanitarian assistance.
"The half-baked plan to force more than a million displaced civilians out of Rafah into so-called 'humanitarian islands' further north beggars belief," said Bell. "And the suggestion that they will be safe simply cannot be given credence."
"How long will it take to build and equip these islands? And how much longer to get people to them?" Bell asked. "With Gaza on the brink of famine, children dying of malnutrition, and desperate families reportedly eating grass to survive, men, women, and children need lifesaving aid now."
"The past five months have taught us that places labeled 'safe zones' in Gaza quickly become death zones."
During a news briefing on Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the planned humanitarian zones would be created in concert "with the international community," but he did not provide specifics or a timeline.
Ahead of a planned ground invasion of Rafah, Hagari said the IDF intends to direct a "significant" portion of the city's population—most of which is living in makeshift tents—to designated areas in central Gaza, where he claimed they would be provided with temporary housing, food, and other necessities that Israel has systematically restricted.
Given that Rafah was once considered a relatively safe area for Palestinians displaced by Israel's assault and is currently under IDF bombardment, aid campaigners expressed deep skepticism that the plan outlined by Hagari is in any way viable or humane.
"There is nothing humanitarian about Israel's proposal to push civilians into 'humanitarian islands' in Gaza," said Melanie Ward, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians. "They are dangerous and must be stopped. The past five months have taught us that places labeled 'safe zones' in Gaza quickly become death zones."
An investigation published Wednesday by the London-based research firm Forensic Architecture shows how the Israeli military has used supposed humanitarian measures to advance its assault on Gaza's civilian population.
The investigation details the IDF's repeated bombardment of so-called "safe zones" to which it has instructed desperate Gazans to flee and makes the case that Israel's evacuation orders have functioned "as a tool of mass displacement, pushing civilians into unlivable areas that later come under attack."
NEW INVESTIGATION: Since 7 Oct 23, the Israeli army has weaponised humanitarian measures such as ‘evacuation orders’, ‘safe routes’ & ‘safe zones’ to support their military operations & facilitate the mass displacement of Palestinians.
View the platform: https://t.co/sOL45vXBcM pic.twitter.com/wr4SAtrIVj
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) March 13, 2024
"Military evacuation of civilian populations is only legal under select, rare circumstances, and requires that displaced civilians be temporarily relocated to areas safe from conflict and with access to fundamental provisions for their safety and survival," the Forensic Architecture analysis said. "Where Israel's evacuation orders might individually be framed as humanitarian in nature, in fact when closely analyzed and considered over time, they reveal patterns of systematic mass displacement, with Palestinians deliberately and repeatedly being expelled from one unsafe and under-resourced location to another."
"A ground invasion in Rafah," the research firm argued, "would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians taking refuge there."
In an interview this past weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden said that an IDF incursion into Rafah would cross a "red line"—a remark that the White House has since tried to walk back after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the planned assault would go ahead.
Asked about Israel's "humanitarian islands" proposal on Thursday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, "We can't confirm that that is in fact a plan that they have."
"Our position has not changed," Kirby said of a potential Rafah invasion. "We do not want to see large-scale operations in Rafah... unless there is [a] legitimate, executable plan to provide for the safety and security of the civilians that are there."
An analyst at the International Crisis Group called the deadly incident "a huge catastrophe for Israel that one can only hope will expedite a cease-fire."
At least 21 Israeli soldiers were killed Monday after explosives planted by the Israel Defense Forces in two Gaza buildings detonated, causing the structures to collapse.
The explosion was apparently triggered by a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a nearby Israeli tank. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, acknowledged during a televised statement that "the buildings probably exploded because of the mines that our forces laid there, in preparation to demolish them and the infrastructure around."
Hagari said that most of the soldiers killed in the incident were inside or close to the buildings when the mines went off.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have engaged in large-scale destruction of Gaza's infrastructure, including homes and other civilian buildings—the targeting of which is a war crime. Israeli soldiers have gleefully filmed the obliteration of entire Gaza neighborhoods, footage that South Africa played during its presentation at the International Court of Justice earlier this month.
Last week, the IDF used mines to blow up a university in northern Gaza, drawing international outrage.
Monday's explosion contributed to the deadliest day for Israeli forces since their latest assault on the Gaza Strip began three and a half months ago, with 24 IDF soldiers killed. Meanwhile, an average of 239 Gazans have been killed each day by Israeli forces since October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel.
"It is difficult to find similar numbers in other recent conflicts," El Paísreported Monday. "The available data, compiled by the United Nations in the academic project Cost of War, indicate that more people are dying per day in Gaza than in Iraq (even in the worst month of fighting in that country), in Syria, or in the first month of war in Ukraine."
(Image: El País)
Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group, called Monday's explosion "a huge catastrophe for Israel that one can only hope will expedite a cease-fire."
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled on social media that the assault on Gaza, which has been carried out with diplomatic and military support from the U.S., will continue indefinitely.
"The IDF has launched an investigation into the disaster," Netanyahu wrote early Tuesday. "We must draw the necessary lessons and do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors. In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."