Israel to allow ‘temporary’ aid through northern Gaza border after Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu US support depends on protecting civilians

Hours after a tense Joe Biden phone call, Israel says it will allow aid deliveries via its border with northern Gaza, reopening the Erez crossing for the first time since Oct 7.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AFP

Israel will allow “temporary” aid deliveries via its border with the northern Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Friday, reopening the Erez crossing into the famine-threatened territory for the first time since the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.

“Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid through Ashdod and the Erez checkpoint,” said a government statement released hours after a warning from US President Joe Biden.

“This increased aid will prevent a humanitarian crisis and is necessary to ensure the continuation of the fighting and to achieve the goals of the war,” the statement added.

The announcement comes as international pressure mounts on Israel after it took responsibility for a strike that killed seven aid workers.

In a tense, 30-minute call with Netanyahu on Thursday, Biden “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza” will be determined based on “specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers”, according to a White House statement.

According to Israel’s statement, in addition to allowing aid through the Erez border crossing and the port of Ashdod, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Gaza, the authorities will also allow “increased Jordanian aid through Kerem Shalom”, a border crossing in southern Israel.

Tense phone call

President Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support hinges on protecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza, signaling for the first time that the White House would reassess backing Israel’s war in the enclave.

In a phone call, Biden demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and urged Netanyahu to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal to bring Israeli hostages home, according to a White House statement. The call came days after Israel killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in what Netanyahu has described as a tragic mistake.

The deaths ignited a firestorm of international outrage at Israel’s conduct and created enormous pressure on the Israeli leader.

During the tense half-hour call, Biden urged Netanyahu to take immediate steps “to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers” and “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the White House said.

The statement represented the Biden administration’s toughest verbal pressure on Netanyahu since the war began in October and one of the biggest public ruptures between a U.S. administration and Israel in decades. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the White House remarks. The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Biden’s warning was followed by pointed demands for immediate changes in Israel’s conduct of the war by other administration officials. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our own policy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference in Brussels.

After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed, Biden initially offered full-throated support for the U.S.’s closest Middle East ally, including a steady stream of weapons and expanded intelligence sharing. As casualties mounted in Gaza during Israel’s military operation against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, relations between the two leaders began to sour. Since the start of the war, more than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, Palestinian health authorities said Thursday. The number doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The deadly Israeli strikes on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy appear to have pushed the White House to its more confrontational approach with Israel.

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials rushed to apologize for the strikes. But the aid group’s founder, José Andrés, accused Israel on Wednesday of deliberately targeting its employees, and the incident has shifted the stakes for the White House in aligning itself closely with Netanyahu.

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, wouldn’t say in a briefing to reporters after the Biden-Netanyahu call whether the U.S. was considering placing conditions on military aid to Israel.

The U.S. was expecting Israel to take steps the U.S. is seeking in the coming “hours and days,” Kirby said, adding that Biden was shaken by the strikes on the World Central Kitchen workers this week, explaining the timing of the U.S. shift toward Israel.

Israel has said its forces misidentified vehicles carrying the aid workers as hostile targets and struck them. The killings prompted questions about the effectiveness of the mechanism used by the Israeli military to keep humanitarian workers out of harm’s way on the battlefield. In response to the incident, the Israeli military said it was changing the way it coordinates with aid groups on the ground.

Biden has repeatedly criticized Israel as not doing enough to ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza, including humanitarian workers who are providing lifesaving aid to the local population. He has also warned Netanyahu against a planned ground invasion operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah without a credible plan to keep the civilian population safe, which U.S. officials say Israel hasn’t presented.

The World Central Kitchen strikes also intensified calls from congressional critics for Biden to take a tougher line with Netanyahu. Some Democrats have demanded that Israel do more to protect civilians and insisted that the White House back more conditions on aid, a stance that could complicate passage in the House of a $95 billion aid bill that includes funding for Israel as well as Ukraine and Taiwan. About 20 Democrats are expected to oppose the House bill because of their concerns about the war, House Democratic aides predict.

Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) said Thursday on CNN that if Netanyahu were to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah without steps to safeguard civilians, he would vote to put conditions on aid to Israel. But that remains a minority position, even among Democrats critical of Netanyahu.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.), who is Jewish and has called for an immediate cease-fire, said support for Israel’s actions is waning in the House.

The U.S. “has an enormous amount of leverage, and even if Bibi Netanyahu doesn’t feel that way, I think we have an obligation at least to not contribute to the further suffering” in Gaza, she said.

Schakowsky and Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) are circulating a letter calling for the White House to withhold offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the deaths of the aid workers is completed and responsible parties are held accountable. The letter also urges the arms transfers be frozen if Israel “fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians.” Biden said last month he might consider withholding some weapons shipments unless civilians are protected in Rafah, but other administration officials played down that option.

The administration hasn’t asked for an interagency review process over whether to limit or restrict weapons deliveries to Israel, a U.S. official said. This week, the Biden administration authorized the transfer to Israel of over 1,000 500-pound bombs and over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, U.S. officials said.

The findings of an Israeli investigation into the strikes on World Central Kitchen employees in Gaza were presented to the military’s chief of staff on Thursday and are being presented to the minister of defense and the prime minister, according to Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

“I believe that after we show it to the ambassadors from the relevant countries and to the people of the WCK we will publish it clearly and transparently to the public and this will happen soon,” Hagari said in a statement on Thursday, referring to World Central Kitchen.

Hagari called the aid group “a devoted organization that came to do good, came to bring food to those who need it in Gaza.” Andrés, the founder of the charity, has called for a wider probe. He asked the governments of those killed to join his organization in demanding a third-party investigation into whether the attacks violated international law.

“An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers,” he said.

Andrés, who said Wednesday that the convoy was “targeted systematically, car by car,” asked the Israeli government to preserve all communications and documents relevant to the strikes to assist in the investigation.

The strikes resulted in the first known deaths of foreign aid workers in Gaza since the start of the war. The victims were a Palestinian, a Pole, an Australian, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen and three British security advisers.

Their deaths were condemned by Western leaders who voiced frustration with Israel’s inability to contain the civilian toll of its war against Hamas.

Wall Street Journal