Against the background of the widespread crisis surrounding US President Biden's threat to withhold arms shipments to Israel if the military operation in Rafah continues, White House spokesman John Kirby addressed the tensions between Jerusalem and Washington and clarified that the American administration continues to support Israel.
"President Biden has been clear that we do not support a ground operation in Rafah, where a million people are without a safe place to go," Kirby said. "The president said this repeatedly directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he offered alternative ways to defeat Hamas."
He also pledged that "the US will continue to provide Israel with all the necessities it needs to defend itself, but not specific weapons for a specific mission." We raised the consequences of using bombs with widespread destruction in densely populated areas with Israel. We still support the goal of weeding out Hamas."
"We still support the goal of destroying Hamas, but President Biden has made it clear that attacking Rafah will not advance this goal," Kirby concluded. "The argument that we are moving away from Israel does not align the facts - we are not abandoning Israel."
