Washington, DC – In early May, seven months into Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, United States President Joe Biden drew a rare red line for the top US ally.
The US president told CNN that Washington would not provide bombs and artillery shells for the Israeli army to invade Rafah in southern Gaza.
But the images of charred bodies that emerged from an Israeli attack in Rafah on Sunday have raised questions about the credibility of Biden’s “red line”. An estimated 45 people were killed in the attack, which struck a cluster of tents sheltering displaced Palestinians.
“It is deeply disappointing to see President Biden continue to allow Israel to operate with impunity,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
“To issue a red line that you knew you weren’t going to follow through on not only means he will continue to be Genocide Joe, but it also just shows he’s weak politically.”
In recent weeks, Washington justified its failure to hold Israel to account by arguing that the offensive in Rafah was a “limited” operation, not the all-out assault that Biden had cautioned against.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterated that position on Tuesday, despite Sunday’s bloodshed and Israeli tanks pushing deeper into Rafah.
“We do not want to see major military operations take place there, the way that we saw them take place in Khan Younis and in Gaza City. At this point, we have not seen a military operation on the scale of those previous operations,” Miller said.
He added that the US could not “verify” that Israeli military vehicles are in central Rafah, which has been confirmed by Palestinian witnesses and Israeli media outlets.
A ‘meaningless’ red line
Palestinian rights advocates argue that the Biden administration is redefining what it considers to be an invasion of Rafah in order to be able to deny that an offensive is happening.
Yasmine Taeb, the legislative and…
Post from www.aljazeera.com
