Biden tells Israel: Stop killing civilians
US president implies arms sales may be halted unless there is ‘immediate ceasefire’
JOE BIDEN has warned Israel that it must take “immediate action” to stop civilian deaths in Gaza, in his strongest hint yet that he is considering withholding arms sales to the war-torn country.
The ultimatum came in a tense 30-minute phone call between the US president and Benjamin Netanyahu last night – the first since Israel killed seven Western aid workers, including three Britons, in a series of precise drone strikes on Monday.
Mr Biden called for an “immediate ceasefire” on the call with his Israeli counterpart after the “unacceptable” attack on aid workers working for Us-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
In his sharpest statement since the conflict began, Mr Biden demanded Israel “announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers”, the White House said. “He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Mr Biden is said to have strongly implied that the US could withhold weapons deliveries to Israel if it does not address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“That was the message,” a White House official told NBC.
In Whitehall, Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, was said to be resisting calls to suspend British arms sales to Israel, despite being warned by senior lawyers that the UK could be in breach of both international and domestic law if exports continued.
John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesman, said that Israel must show it is “willing and able to take practical, immediate steps to protect workers on the ground and to demonstrate that they have that civilian harm mitigation in place”.
He added: “We would hope to see some announcements of changes in the coming hours and days.”
Mr Biden told Mr Netanyahu he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the attack on the aid workers in which a Us-canadian dual citizen was killed. Israel has accepted responsibility for the strikes but claimed they were not intentional.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has grown increasingly dire in the past few months, with more than 32,000 people dead and the remaining population of over two million facing famine and disease.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, told reporters in Brussels that US support would be curtailed if Israel does not make significant adjustments to how it is carrying out the war.
“If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.
A number of Democrats in Congress have called for Mr Biden to condition support to Israel on protecting Gaza’s civilian population and allowing more aid to flow across the border.
Chris Coons, a confidant of the president and a fellow Democrat from Delaware said the US is “at that point” where it must consider conditioning arms sales to Israel.
The State Department’s plan to supply Israel with one of its largest military support packages in years, including $18 billion on F-15 fighter jets, is currently stalled in the Senate, figures familiar with the consultation told The New York Times.
Yet critics say Mr Biden has made similar threats before to no avail and have accused him of being unwilling to take real action.
“The US government is still supplying 2,000lb bombs and ammunition to support Israel’s policy,” Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama, wrote on social media on Wednesday. “Until there are substantive consequences, this outrage does nothing. Bibi obviously doesn’t care what the US says, it’s about what the US does.” Steven A Cook, the Eni
Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, told The Telegraph he thinks Mr Biden will have to follow through with his threat.
“Now that he has essentially threatened action, he would be weak not to follow through if the Israelis do not perform”, he said.
Other than restricting military aid, he said “there really is no other point of leverage for the United States”.
The US faced criticism for approving more bombs to be sent to Israel on the day the seven aid workers were killed in Gaza. The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel – accounting for 69 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 – but pressure is also mounting on the UK.
A letter sent to ministers on Wednesday which was signed by 600 lawyers, including three former Supreme Court justices, warned the UK could be charged with the crimes including “complicity to genocide” unless the country adjusted its relations with
Israel. The letter said, not only that arms exports to Israel should be stopped, to avoid breaching international law, but that Britain’s “strategic partnership” with Israel should be suspended.
The Telegraph understands that in the last fortnight Lord Cameron has also been handed a government legal assess- ment on Israel’s actions in Gaza between December and January.
He is said to have held off so far recommending a UK arms embargo, said one senior Government source familiar with discussions, because it is not a “slam dunk” legal case.
Critically, however, internal assessments about more recent events – most notably the air strike that hit aid workers this week and killed three Britons are yet to be handed to Lord Cameron.
There is no strict timeline on when a legal assessment on Israel’s actions in Gaza in February, March and early April will be submitted to the Foreign Secretary for consideration.
Downing Street and Foreign Office sources yesterday moved to play down the idea that any change on arms sales to Israel was imminent. They also rejected speculation of differing positions between Lord Cameron and the Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, on the issue.
Lord Cameron is understood not to have raised the possibility of an arms suspension when he talked to Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, on Tuesday after the strike that killed the British citizens.
However, the Foreign Secretary did use his call to urge more humanitarian aid be let into Gaza. Mr Katz is said to have given an assurance that 500 aid trucks a day will be allowed in – more than double the recent amount crossing into Gaza.
Nevertheless, pressure for firm UK action is increasing. Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain and Belgium have all suspended arms sales in the wake of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. And yesterday, there were calls in Parliament for the government’s own legal advice to be published.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, urged ministers to “publish the legal advice now”. “If it says there is a clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it’s time to suspend the sale of those arms,” he added.
Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff, said Mr Sunak would “do well to take note of ” the legal threat facing the UK, saying it must be considered “very seriously”.
Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, told the BBC’S Today Podcast Israel’s actions in Gaza have “bordered on the reckless”. He added it was “hard not to conclude that insufficient care is being paid to the collateral risks of these operations, one way or another”.
Lord Ricketts, who was the national security adviser when Lord Cameron was prime minister, called earlier in the week for arms exports to be suspended.
Such a move would likely be supported by voters. A poll conducted by the charity Action for Humanity and conducted before the strikes which killed seven western aid workers this week, found a majority of UK voters – 56 per cent – are in favour of a ban of arms exports to Israel.
By a majority of 59 per cent to 12 per cent voters also say Israel is violating human rights in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu has called the allegations of genocide “outrageous”, and said Israel has an “unwavering commitment to international law”.
He was supported yesterday by the former home secretary Suella Braverman. Israel is “absolutely not” in breach of international law, she said, adding that the very suggestion was “absurd”.