One day after Israel’s incursion into Rafah, the operation is straining relations between the White House and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained why Israel’s war cabinet decided to enter Rafah and seize the Philadelphi Corridor yesterday, calling it “a very important step on the way to destroying the remaining military capabilities of Hamas, including the elimination of the four terrorist battalions in Rafah.” He emphasized the campaign will damage Hamas’s governmental capabilities.
Reports indicate that a private U.S. company will take over operations at the strategic Rafah border crossing, although the White House has objected to the Rafah operation for months.
John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, said their Israeli counterparts revealed that the operation yesterday was “limited and designed to cut off Hamas’s ability to smuggle weapons and funds into Gaza.”
On Tuesday, at the Capitol Hill ceremony to remember survivors of the Holocaust, President Joe Biden condemned the recent rise of anti-Semitism and the Hamas massacre on October 7th.
“Now here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting or already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you. And we will not forget.”
Also on Tuesday, the Biden administration confirmed reports they’re withholding a large shipment of 2,000 and 500-pound bombs fearing it would be used in the Rafah operation.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham blasted that decision on Fox News, saying, “This is the worst possible signal to send to all the bad guys. That America would be withholding weapons and ammunition to the Jewish State who’s under siege on multiple fronts. That is just inciting more violence.”
Israeli journalist Gadi Taub told CBN News, “They are now holding us by the throat because they are withholding ammunition from the IDF. So, Israel needs to fight this war if it is to survive.”
Taub claims that the U.S. is protecting Iran and Israel needs to “break the noose that Iran has been constructing around us and the United States is protecting that noose.”
Today, CIA Chief Bill Burns is expected to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials to talk about the hostage deal with Hamas.