By EFE
06 May 2024, 2:42 PM EDT
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, managed this Monday to get the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to promise to open the Kerem Shalom humanitarian aid crossing, closed after a Hamas attack, and reiterated his “clear position” regarding an invasion of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
As reported by the White House in a statement, “the prime minister agreed to ensure that the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance to those in need.”
The Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the main crossings used to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, was closed on Sunday after a Hamas attack killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded ten others.
In addition, Biden “reiterated his clear position on Rafah,” according to the White House statement, which did not add more details about that part of the conversation.
The Biden Government has repeatedly asked Israel to present a concrete and effective plan before invading Rafah to prevent the death of civilians in that city, located on the border with Egypt and where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded, who They have taken refuge there from Israeli operations in the rest of the enclave.
Netanyahu has been reiterating for months his intention to invade Rafah to eliminate Hamas militants who he claims are hiding there and, just a few hours ago, the Israeli Army ordered the evacuation of some 100,000 residents of Rafah.
On the other hand, the two leaders also spoke about negotiations to agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages held in the enclave by Hamas and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails.
The negotiations are at a crucial moment after the apparent failure of the last round held this weekend in Cairo. However, Washington seeks to revive them, so yesterday, Sunday, CIA Director William Burns arrived in Doha to continue the talks.
Biden specifically referred to that point and updated Netanyahu “on efforts to reach an agreement on the hostages,” including Monday’s talks in Doha, which has hosted Hamas’s political office for more than a decade.
The United States has been acting as a mediator in these negotiations with Egypt and Qatar for months.
Finally, both leaders also spoke about the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is celebrated this Monday.
Specifically, they spoke about the “commitment” that the US and Israel share to remember the six million Jews who were systematically persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust, one of the “darkest chapters in history,” and agreed to “ act forcefully against anti-Semitism and all forms of violence motivated by hate.”
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