Following Washington’s “outrage” at Israel’s killing of seven humanitarian workers and mounting worry over its military actions in beleaguered Gaza, the leaders of the United States and Israel were scheduled to meet on Thursday.
Monday will be the first phone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the Israeli strikes that killed staff members of the US nonprofit World Central Kitchen.
On Wednesday, the bodies of six foreign employees of WCK Australian, British, Polish, and US were returned to their homes via Egypt; the Palestinian employee was buried in Gaza.
The UN secretary-general and the pope were among those who condemned the attack, which Biden described as “outrageous and heartbroken.”
Along with Israel’s larger dispute with Iran and its allies after Iran was held accountable for a deadly attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Biden and Netanyahu were also anticipated to talk about Israel’s plans to send ground soldiers into the crowded southern city of Rafah in Gaza.
In the nearly six-month-old conflict that was started by Hamas’s October 7 strike, the US administration has stood with Israel and continued to provide military supplies to its ally.
But, amid rising domestic anger at the war in a US election year, his administration has also voiced frustration with Israel’s right-wing premier over the conduct of the war and the suffering of Gazans.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin too expressed “outrage” at the aid workers’ killings which Israel has admitted to in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.
Austin stressed the need to protect aid workers and civilians and for “a rapid increase of aid” into Gaza, “particularly to communities in northern Gaza that are at risk of famine,” the Pentagon said.
