US, Israel tensions deepen as Joe Biden warns Benjamin Netanyahu Rafah assault is ‘red line’;

Benjamin Netanyahu hits out at Joe Biden after US president says an Israel invasion of Rafah is a ‘red line’ and the US sends a ship to Gaza, bypassing Israel control over aid shipments.

Tensions are growing between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AFP.

Tensions deepened over the weekend between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as hopes of striking a deal to pause fighting before the start of Ramadan crumbled and a US military ship set sail to ease the flow of aid into Gaza.

Biden warned on Saturday that an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah would cross a “red line” if it caused extensive civilian casualties. He added that Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel.” On Sunday, in an interview with Politico, Netanyahu responded, saying, “I don’t know exactly what the president meant, but if he meant by that I’m pursuing private policies against the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts.”

Further fueling the administration’s concern is the failure to secure a cease-fire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts on Monday. Tensions could heighten in Jerusalem as tens of thousands of Palestinians seek access to holy sites that are under tight Israeli security control.

In an interview on Saturday, Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, warned that unrest would escalate in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, a ship left from Virginia carrying personnel and equipment to build a temporary pier the Biden administration hopes will help get aid into Gaza, even as the security and logistical challenges to such an operation become clearer.

The General Frank S. Besson, a logistical-support vessel, departed from Joint Base Langley-Eustis on Saturday, according to a statement Sunday by US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East.

President Biden said in his State of the Union speech that the US military would install the pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip for cargo ships to unload emergency supplies. The effort reflects the intensifying pressure on the administration to relieve a humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s fight against Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the US

Biden ordered the project in the hopes of easing shortages of food, water, shelter and medical services for Gaza’s 2.2 million residents.

On Sunday, the US military said it, along with Jordan’s Royal Air Force, dropped 11,500 meals and other food staples into Gaza, the fifth such drop in just over a week. But the amount of food that can be dropped from the sky is too little to feed Gazans.

After talks on a ceasefire broke down last week and the flow of aid into Gaza became severely constrained due to lawlessness on the ground and Israeli airstrikes, the administration has been struggling to find a way to relieve the humanitarian crisis.

Moreover, plans by Israel to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians displaced by fighting have taken refuge, promises to worsen the situation.

Netanyahu sees the Rafah offensive as critical to his goal of defeating Hamas, whose bloody Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war.

But those plans created fresh tension between the US and Israel over the weekend. Senior US officials have warned Israel against a direct ground and air attack, doubting it can develop an effective plan to move the civilian population out of harm’s way ahead of the assault.

Biden said in late February that he anticipated a deal would be completed last week before Ramadan started, but his timetable was met with skepticism from some people involved in the negotiations.

Moreover, plans by Israel to attack Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians displaced by fighting have taken refuge, promise to worsen the situation.

Netanyahu sees the Rafah offensive as critical to his goal of defeating Hamas, whose bloody Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war.

But senior U.S. officials have warned Israel against a direct ground and air attack, doubting it can develop an effective plan to move the civilian population out of harm’s way ahead of the assault.

U.S. officials have said it would take roughly 60 days to put the temporary pier in place, during which time the humanitarian situation in Gaza could worsen.

Ships would unload aid onto the floating pier that would be transferred onto U.S. military support vessels, the Pentagon said. Those vessels would then take the aid onto an approximately 1,800-foot-long, two-lane causeway that would be attached to the shore.

Biden has promised no U.S. troops would be on the ground. Instead, local forces would secure the pier into place off Gaza, the Pentagon said. And the Israeli military would provide security, Biden said on Friday.

One reason building a pier would take two months is that the U.S. military must transport U.S. equipment and forces into the region, U.S. defense officials say.

In all, roughly 1,100 military personnel would be deployed in support of the pier, the Pentagon said.

However, former military commanders warned that getting aid into Gaza with commercial ships will be a major logistical and security challenge -- and likely would require some U.S. military support, even if troops aren’t on the ground.

“I think it is worth trying because anything that gets food in is good, but it is a difficult proposition,” said Ret. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, who led U.S. Central Command. “It is risky. Will insurance underwrite those ships? How do you get the aid to shore?” In an interview, Constantinos Kombos, the foreign minister of Cyprus, from which the aid would depart as part of the effort, said, “We are fully aware that without satisfying those security concerns, nothing can happen.” An American company in talks with the U.S. administration, Fogbow, says it can begin delivering aid by sea even before a military pier is built, according to people familiar with the plan.

Fogbow, which is led by Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, and retired Marine Lt. Gen. Sam Mundy, says it could, in coordination with a Gazan partner, dredge a corridor on a private beachfront. That would enable the barges to get close enough to the shore to unload the aid onto trucks. Once built, the military pier could offer a second way to bring in aid.

Administration officials have said that while they are talking to several companies, including Fogbow, they haven’t formally agreed to support any specific group.

Qatari officials told The Wall Street Journal they would provide $60 million toward Fogbow’s efforts.

The U.S. usually builds these temporary structures in hostile zones where it cannot access piers or where piers have been destroyed. It also has built them in response to humanitarian crises, such as disaster relief after hurricanes. Last year, the U.S. conducted an exercise using the temporary piers in Australia.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the coast near Gaza on Sunday to observe preparations for opening a maritime corridor to the enclave. He said the United Arab Emirates would help facilitate the corridor from the civilian side on the ground in Gaza.

“The process is designed to facilitate aid directly to civilians and in this way, it advances [our goal] of overthrowing Hamas’ rule in Gaza,” he said in a statement.

However, once the supplies are brought to shore, it is unclear how they will be distributed to Palestinians and how aid convoys will be protected on the ground amid a breakdown in law and order, attacks on aid trucks by desperate civilians and Israeli strikes.

Some experts say a cease-fire is necessary to relieve the humanitarian crisis there, but talks on such a deal broke down late last week.

The fighting has so far killed more than 31,000 people in the strip, according to Palestinian authorities. That figure doesn’t differentiate between militants and civilians.

After Israel ended Hamas’s control in northern Gaza earlier in the war, ground forces limited the flow of aid there without providing an alternative civilian authority to restore order and basic services.

Israeli officials have acknowledged that the lack of order in northern Gaza has impeded aid delivery there, and they say they are trying to help the U.N. find ways to protect aid convoys, including through private contractors.

Meanwhile, World Central Kitchen, a U.S. charity, said on Saturday that it had loaded a ship with 200 tons of food that is waiting at the Larnaca port in Cyprus to travel to Gaza once conditions allow for it.

Israel only recently opened the sea route from Cyprus to Gaza. The charity says it began building a jetty inside Gaza on Sunday to receive the aid and won’t wait for the U.S. pier to be finished.

The Wall St Journal