With a telephone call scheduled for Thursday between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, relations between the two allies are becoming increasingly strained. The cause is the death of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, especially since the head of the international organization, José Andrés, is a supporter and friend of Joe Biden.
According to US officials, Joe Biden is furious with Benjamin Netanyahu. As reported by Axios, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “expressed his outrage at the Israeli attack” on the WCK aid convoy during a phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a Pentagon statement.
Austin also stressed “the need to take immediate, concrete steps to protect aid workers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza after repeated failures to coordinate with foreign aid groups.” World Central Kitchen, along with other humanitarian associations, has suspended its operations in Gaza due to the danger posed by Israeli strikes.
Another point of contention is the Israeli plan to operate at Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in Gaza. According to Israeli media reports, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer began “shouting and waving his arms” after the plan was rejected by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Although they kept their composure, the two men rejected the Israeli plan, which, according to sources, “did not include plans for meeting sanitation needs or an assessment of the amount of food or water required,” nor a plan for supplying the hundreds of thousands of tents needed to make the plan work.
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