Netanyahu says Israel will ‘stand alone’ if it has to after US threatens to withdraw arms supply
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country will “stand alone” if it has to in its war against Hamas – after the its main ally the US threatened to stop sending it some arms.
President Joe Biden this week said the US would not provide offensive weapons for Israel’s long-promised assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel says that Rafah is Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza, and Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade the city despite widespread international opposition due to concerns over the more than one million Palestinian civilians huddled in the city.
“If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said. “If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.”
Mr Biden’s comments about providing weapons were the latest sign of steadily deteriorating relations between Israel after seven months of Israel’s war against Hamas.
The threat of losing a key flow of arms has raised questions about Israel’s ability to continue the war.
Earlier this week, it moved into Rafah’s eastern outskirts and seized control of a key border crossing.
Asked whether Israel could press ahead without American arms, the army’s spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Israel already has the weapons it needs for the Rafah operation.
“The army has munitions for the missions it plans, and for the missions in Rafah too – we have what we need,” he said.
He said relations with the US remain close and said Israel appreciates American assistance and that disagreements should be resolved behind closed doors.
Israel’s initial push into Rafah, along with Hamas attacks on Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, have disrupted the flow of aid into Gaza and raised new concerns about worsening the territory’s already dire humanitarian situation.
On Thursday, the first aid ship bound for an American-built floating pier to be installed in Gaza departed. But it is unclear when the corridor will be up and running, and humanitarian groups say there are still major obstacles to getting food to starving Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave.
Cyprus announced the ship’s departure even though the US military has not yet installed the pier and questions remain as to how the aid will be distributed.
Even when the route is up and running, it will not be able to handle as much aid as Gaza’s two main land crossings, which are currently inaccessible.
The UN says most of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians suffer from hunger and that northern Gaza is already experiencing “full-blown famine”.
Humanitarian workers fear an even more dire situation if Israel launches its long-promised invasion of the southern city of Rafah, which is the main distribution point for aid and where some 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge, most having fled from fighting elsewhere.
Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, and it is unclear when it will reopen.
Israel reopened its side of the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing – Gaza’s main cargo terminal – after a rocket attack over the weekend, but the UN’s main provider of humanitarian assistance says aid cannot be brought in on the Palestinian side because of the security situation.
A recently reopened route in the north is still functioning, but only 60 trucks entered on Tuesday, far below the 500 that entered Gaza each day before the war.
Additional reporting by AP.
