Change of tone. Joe Biden warned, Wednesday May 8, that he “would not deliver” certain weapons to Israel in the event of a major offensive against Rafah. This is the first time that the American president has publicly conditioned his aid to the Jewish state, of which the United States is the primary military supporter. “If they enter Rafah, I will not deliver to them the weapons that have always been used (…) against cities”assured the Democrat during an interview on CNN. “We will not deliver the weapons and artillery shells that were used” until then, he insisted. Asked about suspending the delivery of a first shipment of bombs last week, Joe Biden acknowledged that “Civilians were killed in Gaza because of these bombs. (…) It’s bad.”
Rafah bombed and evacuated. Since Monday, the Israeli army has been massively bombing and carrying out incursions into the eastern neighborhoods of the city in the south of the Palestinian territory. It ordered its residents to evacuate to the Center, as part of plans to wipe out Hamas. “Life has completely stopped in the city center”, “the streets are empty, the markets are at a standstill”described a Palestinian, Marwan al-Masri, to AFP.
Growing mobilization of support for Gaza in universities. In Amsterdam, students have been demonstrating since Monday for the institution to cut all ties with Israel because of its military offensive in Gaza. On Tuesday evening, dozens of riot police used batons against protesters who had occupied a university building. In the United States, Washington police dispersed a camp at George Washington University at dawn on Wednesday.
Negotiations underway in Cairo. Indirect negotiations resumed Wednesday morning to try to reach a compromise on a truce and avoid an assault on Rafah. Benjamin Netanyahu also met in Jerusalem with the director of the CIA, William Burns, to discuss a possible “break” in military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages, according to an Israeli official.
Catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The closure of crossing points and military operations in Rafah are leading to a worsening humanitarian crisis. The UN said it only had one day’s worth of fuel oil left for humanitarian operations. A British emergency doctor, James Smith, on a mission to southern Gaza, described a health situation “catastrophic” and a smell of sewage “omnipresent” in the hospital.