19 October 2025 10:02 BST
Israelâs Channel 12 reported that the strikes were launched in an attempt to protect the militias of Yasser Abu Shabab, an Israeli-backed gang accused of stealing humanitarian aid and attacking Hamas fighters during Israelâs two-year genocidal war on Gaza.
The presidentâs announcement that he was prepared to condition American weaponry on Israelâs actions amounts to a turning point in the seven-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. And his acknowledgement that American bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza was a stark recognition of the United Statesâ role in the war.
The president has come under extraordinary pressure, including from members of his own party, to limit shipments of arms amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In dem CNN-Interview wurde Biden gefragt, ob mit dem Typ an US-Bomben, deren Lieferung vorerst auf Eis liege, Zivilisten in Gaza getötet worden seien. Biden sagte dazu: „Zivilisten wurden im Gazastreifen infolge dieser Bomben und anderer Methoden, mit denen sie Bevölkerungszentren angreifen, getötet.“
Biden machte zugleich deutlich, die US-Regierung werde weiter sicherstellen, dass Israel ausreichend militĂ€rische AusrĂŒstung zur eigenen Verteidigung habe, etwa das Raketenabwehrsystems Iron Dome.
The White House last week paused a shipment of weapons to Israel, as Israeli leaders closed in on a decision to launch an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Wednesday in testimony to Congress that „we paused one shipment of high payload munitions.„
(06.05.2024)
President Biden updated the Prime Minister on efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar. The Prime Minister agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance for those in need. The President reiterated his clear position on Rafah.
(14.03.2024)
Israel has not revealed when the offensive in Rafah will begin, nor when the evacuation will occur. Announcing the „humanitarian islands“ plan, Hagari said only that Israel wanted the timing to be right operationally and to be coordinated with neighbouring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its border.
(01.05.2024)
Haaretz reported that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is a member of the security cabinet, called for the âtotal annihilationâ of Rafah and other areas of Gaza.
He said on Monday: âThere are no half measures. [The Gazan cities of] Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat â total annihilation. âYou will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.â
(03.05.2024)
The Israeli military has informed aid groups and the Biden administration of a plan to begin removing Gazans from Rafah ahead of an invasion, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the situation.
The Israel Defense Forces recently told the U.S. government and aid groups operating on the ground that they had developed a plan to move people out of Rafah, the main humanitarian hub in the enclave, to al-Mawasi, a small strip of land on the southern Gaza coast.
(04.05.2024)
According to an unnamed U.S. official and two other people familiar with the plan, Israel would „move people out of Rafah, the main humanitarian hub in the enclave, to al-Mawasi, a small strip of land on the southern Gaza coast.“ Politico also obtained a copy of a map containing some details of the plan.
Israels Regierungschef Benjamin Netanyahu hatte kĂŒrzlich erklĂ€rt, die israelische Armee werde ungeachtet der internationalen Kritik und unabhĂ€ngig von einer möglichen Einigung auf ein Abkommen ĂŒber eine Waffenruhe im Gazastreifen ihre PlĂ€ne fĂŒr eine Bodenoffensive in Rafah umsetzen.
The death toll from Israeli air strikes targeting two Palestinian homes in densely populated Rafah, in the south of Gaza, has risen to 19, including 14 children
Israeli fighter jets have bombed two homes in Rafah in overnight strikes, killing a total of 10 people, including six children and women.
(today)
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gazaâs southernmost city of Rafah killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
(18.04.2024)
The US has approved a potential Israeli Rafah operation in exchange for the Jewish state not conducting counterstrikes on Iran, according to a Thursday report from the Qatari newspaper The New Arab.
A senior official told The New Arab that „Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to obtain American approval for a military operation in Rafah, in exchange for [Israel] refraining from carrying out a wide military operation against Iran in response to its recent attack.“
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz said during a press conference in Sderot on Wednesday that Hamas was militarily defeated following the IDF‘s operation in Gaza.
„From a military point of view – Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding. Its abilities are cut off, and we will continue to strike what remains.
However, âfrom a military point of view â Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hidingâ and its capabilities âcrippled,â he continues, stating that âvictory will come step by stepâ and that Israel âwill not stop. We will enter Rafah. We will return to Khan Younis. And we will operate in Gaza. Wherever there are terrorist targets â the IDF will be there.â
„It‘s very, very important,“ Ziv said of U.S. military aid to Israel. Placing conditions on it, he said, „creates a dangerous precedent for Israel because it just wasn‘t in the cards up until now.“ (…)
The U.S. could continue to abstain or even support United Nations resolutions that Israel finds unfavorable, as it did this week.
(27.03.2024)
It‘s a sharp reversal by Netanyahu who on Monday canceled the same trip by the same people in protest over the U.S. not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The fallout over the canceled trip and a deadlock in hostage talks added to already spiraling relations between Netanyahu and the Biden administration.
(February 16, 2024)
An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gazaâs population, has crammed into the city, most of them displaced people who fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Israel has said it will evacuate the civilians before attacking, though international aid officials have said there is nowhere to go due to the vast devastation left behind by the offensive.
A copy of the new draft resolution, obtained by Al Jazeera, reads: âThe Security Council determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering and towards that end unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.â (…)
No vote has yet been scheduled on this text.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. has submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that calls „for an immediate ceasefire“ in Gaza that‘s „tied to the release“ of hostages held by Hamas.
On this episode of Real Talk we ask White House hopeful Cornel West why he called Joe Biden a ‚war criminal‘.
The progressive scholar who speaks fervently about the war on Gaza and explains why Biden‘s Gaza policy makes him a ‚hypocrite,‘ how Arab-American voters will turn their backs on him and why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a ‚gangster‘.
(21.03.2024)
Two senior US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that the US will present alternative plans for how Israel can continue pursuing Hamas without launching a major ground operation in Rafah during an upcoming meeting with a visiting Israeli delegation in Washington.
(19.03.2024)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted President Bidenâs invitation to send a senior delegation to Washington, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, to âhear U.S. concernsâ over Israelâs plans to invade Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where displaced Palestinians are concentrated.
âWe have a disagreement with the Americans about the need to enter Rafah,â Netanyahu told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. âNot about the need to eliminate Hamas â the need to enter Rafah. We do not see a way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions. We are determined to do it. â
âI made it clear to the president in our conversation, in the clearest way, that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah,â said Netanyahu. âThere is no way to do it, except by going in on the ground.â
Briefing lawmakers on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that he made it „supremely clear“ to US President Joe Biden „that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there‘s no way to do that except by going in on the ground“.