The Israeli government chooses its most arrogant face to respond to Joe Biden. Arrogance masks worry. Because if it is true that US support is not disappearing (a piece of military support is disappearing, at least temporarily: the distance is on the methods and not on the objectives), the suspension of the sending of US mega bombs is an unprecedented move. Last night the war cabinet met to discuss what to do after the White House’s decision and the interview that Biden gave on Wednesday to the CNN.
«WE WILL FIGHT with nails if necessary”, Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly told his entourage after a – very tense – phone call with the US president. Which on his part is under significant pressure: the delivery to Congress of the State Department’s report on the possible violation by Israel of international law with US weapons has been awaited for days.
In fact, however, Biden has already said it on TV: the mega bombs were used to hit civilians. It’s unlikely that it didn’t happen: there are widespread raids on Gaza every day, 35 thousand have been killed, 10 thousand are missing. 50 thousand artillery ammunition, 30 thousand howitzer ammunition and thousands more missiles have already left the US Department of Defense. And then the famous “stupid” bombs, with the kit attached to make them “intelligent”.
Pausing 3,500 bombs is Washington’s way of telling Tel Aviv not to march on Rafah, or at least to do so with moderation.
THE REACTION in Tel Aviv it is hysterical. Likud lawmaker Tali Gottlieb said that if “the US threatens not to give us accurate missiles, then I have news for them: we will use inaccurate ones. I will make ten buildings collapse.” National Security Minister Ben Gvir, a Kahanist right-wing extremist, wrote on Twitter that “Hamas loves Biden”.
And then there are those who make the decisions. And they are not reassuring. Defense Minister Gallant yesterday sent word to “enemies and friends” that “the State of Israel cannot be tamed.” Netanyahu does not intend to stop, Israeli and US officials say NBCneither to preserve historic alliances nor to save the lives of the hostages still alive: no exchange agreement with Hamas, the sources say, unless they are allowed to attack Rafah.
We certainly know that there is no one left in Cairo: CIA director William Burns has left and both Tel Aviv and Hamas have recalled their respective negotiating delegations, with the Islamic movement accusing Israel of having launched the offensive on Rafah to derail the dialogue.
Rafah is just over 300 kilometers from Cairo and about a hundred from Tel Aviv. All eyes are on Rafah, as the thousands of signs that crowd the squares around the world say so, All eyes on Rafah.
SECOND UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, since Monday at least 100 thousand Palestinians have fled from the city that was thought to be a refuge, an enormous number of displaced people in just four days who, without tents or shelters, are trying to find shelter in the skeletons of destroyed houses.
«There is a lot of fear – says a UN official al Guardian – The streets are congested, cars, carts pulled by donkeys, people on foot. Some have been displaced several times. They could become 300 thousand in a few days. The problem is that there is no place that can accommodate such a number of people, that is safe and equipped with basic services.”
We go around in circles, up and down, using up the last of our savings, whoever still has any. The areas that Israel has defined as safe – Khan Younis and al-Mawasi – are literally in rubble or without structures capable of accommodating displaced people.
This is why most of the million and a half Palestinians crowded on the southern border do not escape: they do not know where to go and going north would mean moving away from humanitarian aid. Which however, with the two crossings (Rafah and Kerem Shalom) still closed by Israel, risk disappearing from Rafah too. Nothing has come in since Monday.
Despite this, groups of Israeli extremists – including some mayors – want to ensure that we die of hunger: yesterday they blocked the roads leading to Kerem Shalom with hundreds of boulders.
AND WHILE at the post-Israeli siege Shifa hospital the third mass grave emerges (49 bodies have been recovered so far, some only dismembered parts. It is the seventh discovered so far in all of Gaza), the bombs continue to fall. At least 20 members of the Abu Sharia family were killed in Gaza City.
In Rafah, the central and western neighborhoods were hit, including the “safe” al-Mawasi, “new” fronts after the raids in the east and south. To the Palestinians, the bombings appear random, without real military direction and therefore even more frightening, like the constant drone of drones and the roar of fighter jets. “I can’t walk, my legs can’t hold up anymore – a man tells the British newspaper – I’ve been scared for too long.”
