Two top Israeli officials criticised US President Joe Biden on Thursday for threatening to stop certain arms supplies to Israel if it invades the crowded Gaza city of Rafah.
Reacting to Biden’s action, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan on public radio stated that he is disappointed by his statement.
According to him, ” This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war”.
Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting “targeted raids” in the eastern areas of Rafah.
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“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,” Biden told CNN, in his starkest warning to Israel since the start of the war.
Following his utterance, Erdan replied, “If Israel is restricted from entering an area as important and central as Rafah where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and leaders of Hamas, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our goals?”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his government would pursue its goals in Gaza despite the US threat.
In his words, “We will achieve complete victory in this war despite President Biden’s push back and arms embargo,”
“We must continue the war until Hamas is totally eliminated and our hostages are back home. This involves conquering Rafah completely and the sooner the better.”
