Middle East conflict
Biden warns Netanyahu in phone call
Threatening Israel with consequences: US President Joe Biden. photo
© Jacquelyn Martin/AP/dpa
US President Biden is increasing the pressure on Israel – Netanyahu should take concrete steps to alleviate the suffering in Gaza. US Secretary of State Blinken also finds clear words.
In a phone call, Biden also warned that future US policy on the Gaza Strip depends on how Israel implements these measures, the White House said. The measures are also about protecting the employees of aid organizations in the sealed-off coastal strip.
“Despite important steps that Israel has taken to enable aid in the Gaza Strip, the results on the ground are completely inadequate and unacceptable,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels. There is currently no higher priority than protecting the civilian population and expanding humanitarian aid, emphasized Blinken.
In this context, Blinken referred to the fatal attack on seven employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen, who the Israeli military killed in an air strike at the beginning of the week. The aid workers were traveling in the Gaza Strip to supply people with food. “The horrific attack on World Central Kitchen this week was not the first such incident,” Blinken said. “It has to be the last one.”
According to the US State Department, 208 humanitarian workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began in October 2023.