The US on Friday criticised Israel’s use of American weapons in the Gaza war, after Israeli forces intensified operations around the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering.
Although the US could not come to “conclusive findings” and refrained from blocking shipments, it said that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had used weapons in ways that were against international humanitarian law during the seven-month war.
Following US President Joe Biden’s promise to stop some military sales if Israel carried out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat of a full-scale attack on Rafah, relations between the two allies deteriorated earlier this week.
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The US has warned that the reputational damage Israel will suffer if it storms a city where an estimated 1.4 million civilians are sheltering will far outweigh any possible military gain.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah, while France urged Israel to cease its operations in Rafah “without delay”.
The Israeli premier has said repeatedly that Israel cannot defeat Hamas and eliminate any possibility of the militant group repeating its bloody October 7 attack without sending ground troops into Rafah in search of remaining Hamas fighters.
Netanyahu struck a defiant tone on Thursday, vowing: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
The White House renewed its opposition Friday but said it saw no major operation yet against the city.
“We’re obviously watching it with concern, of course, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say what we’ve seen here in the last 24 hours connotes or indicates a broad, large (or) major ground operation,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Earlier this week, Israeli ground troops seized eastern areas of the city, including the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but they have yet to enter its main built-up area.