ARAB AND WORLD
Fri 08 Dec 2023 6:51 pm - Jerusalem Time
American sources: Biden set a deadline to end the Gaza war, and Israel is ignoring Washington’s demands
American sources said that US President Joe Biden has set a deadline to end the Israeli war on Gaza, while US intelligence believes that Israel has ignored American calls for restraint in its ongoing aggression since the seventh of last October.
The Politico website quoted three Israeli officials as saying that the US President's administration had given Israel until the end of the year to end its war on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
One of the officials explained that the US administration advised Israel not to go to Gaza, but the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored that and proceeded with its plans to penetrate the Strip.
Biden spoke by phone yesterday with Netanyahu, and the White House said that the US President “stressed the urgent need to protect civilians and separate the civilian population from Hamas, including by corridors that allow people to safely exit the designated areas where hostilities are taking place.”
A deadlier attack
On the other hand, the Huffington Post website quoted an American official as saying that American intelligence estimates that the Israeli army continues to operate at the same pace and shows limited concern about civilians despite repeated American calls for restraint.
The official said that there are doubts that the current Israeli military attack is more bloody than the attack on the northern Gaza Strip, which Israel carried out in the first phase of its aggression against Gaza.
The website quoted a US State Department official as saying that it increasingly appears that the Israeli army is waging an “ethnic cleansing campaign” in Gaza, and the American diplomat said that Washington is angry about the way Netanyahu “literally” burned the reputation of the United States to advance his personal political agenda.
In this context, the Associated Press quoted a senior official in the US State Department as saying that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a phone call with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer that the loss of life is still very high in Gaza, and that Israel must make More efforts to allow humanitarian aid into it.
Blinken said, after a press conference yesterday with his British counterpart, David Cameron, that there is a gap between the Israeli government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the number of casualties in the Strip.
"For example, it is not just about creating safe zones, but also communicating in such a way that non-combatants actually know where they can flee, exactly when and by what route. Food, water and medicine must also be provided to refugees in these safe zones," he added.
The ongoing Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip for two months have left more than 17,000 dead and about 46,000 wounded, in addition to widespread destruction of infrastructure and a worsening humanitarian crisis in light of the displacement of a large number of Gazans, numbering more than two million, to areas in the south of the Strip.
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American sources: Biden set a deadline to end the Gaza war, and Israel is ignoring Washington’s demands