International newspapers and news sites focused their attention on US President Joe Biden’s announcement of suspending some ammunition shipments to Israel against the backdrop of the latter’s launch of an operation in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and the imminent start of operation of the American floating dock off the coast of Gaza.
The American website “The Hill” believes that the red line that Biden set against any major Israeli military operation in Rafah puts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads.
The site shows that Netanyahu speaks in a challenging tone in public to court his right-wing base, but behind the scenes he showed respect for Biden’s demands.
In turn, military affairs editor Dan Sabbagh believes, in an analysis in the British newspaper The Guardian, that Israel is capable of moving forward with its attack on Rafah in the near term.
He believed that Biden’s threat required stopping a specific category of weapons, leaving other types available to Israel, and that the Israeli Air Force was not largely affected by the American decision.
In an article in the Hebrew newspaper “Haaretz”, writer Zvi Bar’el considered Israel’s control of the Rafah crossing to be an occupation of Gaza once again, with consequences in accordance with international law.
According to Bar’el, this complicates Tel Aviv’s relationship with Cairo, and no less important is what the rules of engagement are, in the event of an attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) or clashes with the residents of Gaza.
Consequences of the Rafah attack
In turn, the American magazine “Newsweek” quoted experts and non-governmental organizations as saying that the Israeli attack on Rafah will weaken the Hamas movement, but will not undermine its leadership in the Gaza Strip in the long term.
The Institute for the Study of War says – according to the magazine – that Hamas leaders may have believed that their movement was able to survive the operation and pursue ceasefire demands without making major concessions, because Hamas continues to operate from other areas in the Gaza Strip outside Rafah and controls it, and the attack will weaken Israel’s position. At the global level.
For its part, the American newspaper “Washington Post” said that the Israeli military operations in Rafah this week exacerbated the deterioration of the already dilapidated health care network.
She pointed out that children were most at risk, as thousands of infants in southern Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition, and those under the age of approximately five in the region suffer from one or more infectious diseases, according to UNICEF.
Regarding the temporary floating port, the American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal” revealed that the United States will soon begin using the seaport pier that it built off the coast of Gaza, but it is facing difficulties in distributing aid, which represents a test of Biden’s promise to alleviate the humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians.
The newspaper quotes American officials as saying that the main details have not yet been resolved, and Washington has not developed a plan for how to store, secure and distribute aid once it arrives.