faced with an intractable Netanyahu, Biden is losing patience

While the risk of famine in Gaza is increasingly high, the United States is trying to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bend, who is making the military intervention in Rafah an existential issue.

This is the first step in the diplomatic tightening given this week by the international community on Israeli policy in Gaza. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, is often harsh against Israel in his statements. But Monday March 18, he is no longer the only one wanting to change the course of things. US President Joe Biden took his phone to dot the i’s with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

For a month, the two men had been talking through the media. America is clearly saying today that the military strategy displayed by the Israeli government, which wants to intervene militarily in the South, in Rafah, is not the right one. Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, puts it very clearly: “A major ground operation would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen lawlessness in Gaza, and further isolate Israel on the international stage.”

A resolution rejected

To accompany this message, the United States submitted a resolution on Friday March 22, rejected by the UN Security Council, which mentions for the first time an immediate ceasefire. The document is filed at the time when Antony Blinken lands in Jerusalem to meet with an Israeli Prime Minister who has been driving the point home for weeks.

After this interview, Benjamin Netanyahu plays public opinion against the Americans. He says he will lead the Rafah offensive even without US support. He approved the military plan for Rafah and intends to soon validate the civilian evacuation plan. He had already hammered it home on Sunday March 17 in front of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor. “We think that the key to peace is securitydid he declare. Many believe that the key to security is peace. We want to advance peace, and for that, Israel must take responsibility for security throughout this small sector or the radicals will take control.” The only visible change is that Benjamin Netanyahu is sending a team with two of his followers to Washington to listen to the American sermon.

The terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza

This is undoubtedly the second blade in the American strategy to try to modify the catastrophic trajectory into which the Israeli military operation is leading the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. Less than 24 hours after the American President’s phone call to the Israeli Prime Minister, Antony Blinken essentially said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is no longer tenable. Half of the enclave is on the verge of famine and the entire population is food insecure. This assessment comes from a group that brings together United Nations agencies and 20 UN agencies and NGOs. It is relayed at the highest level by American Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “This is the first time that there is this type of classification on the scale of an entire population. 100%. The entire population depends on humanitarian aid. In comparison, Sudan is around 80% .”

According to this assessment, if nothing changes, the northern Gaza Strip will be in a situation of famine within a month and a half. This risk had already been identified, but it is today used as diplomatic leverage. But there is no guarantee for the future, fears Julia Grignon, professor of international humanitarian law. According to her, this risk of famine that we are talking about today has already been talked about for several weeks, even several months. “Indeed, from all sides, there is pressure to ensure that this catastrophe does not happen and at the same time, I tell myself that people have been saying that this is a catastrophe for a very long time, so I wonder How long will we say that it’s a catastrophe before really making this observation.”

Israel is suspected of using hunger as a weapon, which would be considered a war crime if proven, warns the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Whatever the intention, in this type of situation, the responsibility of the occupant is engaged adds Lucile Marbeau, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross: “There is an obligation, first and foremost, for Israel as the occupying power, to ensure a minimum subsistence level for the civilian population. There is a consensus among humanitarian organizations to say that since the beginning of the escalation of this conflict of incredible violence, there has never been enough assistance.”

“There is an obligation, first and foremost, to Israel as the occupying power, to ensure a minimum subsistence level for the civilian population.”

Lucile Marbeau, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

As a combined shot on Monday March 18, Oxfam publishes a report in which the organization accuses Israel of deliberately slowing down access to humanitarian aid trucks. Louis Nicolas Jandeaux Humanitarian Campaign and Advocacy Manager at Oxfam France regrets that between January and February the number of trucks that could enter Gazawoui territory was halved. Already there are only two crossing points that actually work. There is a really extremely complicated administrative protocol. The excavations are very, very long. You should know that trucks are stuck on average for 20 days at the crossing point.

The number of humanitarian trucks halved

Despite this pressure, the Israeli army relaunched an operation on the AL Shiffa hospital in which more than 140 Palestinian fighters were killed according to the Israelis. And nearly 600 people were arrested. In Israel, the conditions of detention of Gazans remain opaque. Israeli NGOs denounce systematic abuses. In this context, the United States is putting all its weight behind trying to advance the difficult truce negotiations which have resumed in Qatar. And the Canadians have suspended their arms delivery to Israel

Vincent Stheli, director of operations for Action Against Hunger, was in Gaza at the beginning of March. He explains that there is not enough food in the north of the enclave and that there is also a mix between food, drinking water and lack of care. “It’s a very explosive mix in terms of malnutrition, so it’s a very critical situationhe explains. There is food arriving but people do not eat several meals a day and the nutritional quality is poor. For famine, we often have pockets of famine in a country, in a region, or in a place here we are talking about a risk for the entire population. There must be a permanent opening for humanitarian aid. A break is not enough to resolve cases of malnutrition. Malnutrition does not come overnight and it will take time to stabilize the situation and to turn back the clock and recover the health of the children.”

In this episode: Thibault Lefevre

Director: Etienne Monin, Raphaël Rasson, Pauline Pennanec’h