Israel Hamas: US ‘red lines’ unclear as IDF keeps focus on Rafah

hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on the move again Rafa, where the IDF has been warning for weeks that they are about to invade but where it is truly safe the fear is real 21 members of the same family murdered overnight this funeral is not in Rafa, is miles away in dear Albala there is still no ceasefire in Gaza the entire population is effectively trapped between the IDF and Hamas here they are in pieces here is my sister-in-law headless my aunt is headless what is this injustice until when will it continue this? we are exhausted by God we are exhausted when and how will this end Israel says it will not stop until Hamas is defeated still in some places Hamas appears to have regrouped Israeli militias expanded their evacuation orders for Rafa several neighborhoods are being told more than More More than 150,000 people have already fled the city to what the IDF calls an expanded humanitarian zone on the coast, but further north they have now said that parts of Gaza City must be re-evacuated.

The IDF says Hamas has reconvened in and around Jabalia so residents are being told to leave again and head to shelters in the West. 7 months of fighting and almost 35,000 Palestinians have been killed. More than 100 Israeli hostages remain missing. Hamas said this afternoon that Briton Nadav Poell, 51, is already dead and claims he was killed by an Israeli airstrike Israeli ground troops in Rafa are already in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas according to the IDF, but at the UN and in capitals around the world Israel is under increasing diplomatic pressure to change strategy. The UN General Assembly voted last night to grant Palestine greater rights.

Israel is defiant, although yes, that is what you are doing, trashing the United Nations Charter, its ambassador to the United Nations. Furious shame on you, so the

focus

is on Israel's key ally. What is Washington's next step? Consider Israel's use of American bombs. Have they violated human rights? law, a long-awaited State Department report released last night came very close to saying yes, fueled by protests from campers and growing disquiet in the Democratic base over Israel's persecution of Hamas, how it is responded to matters and when a 2000b bomb is used to chase a member. of Hamas and killing 100 or more people, which is not consistent with international law in Israel tonight hostage families plead for war to stop entering Rafa and expansion of operations there hampers hostage release negotiations and puts the lives of the hostages in grave danger. and in Rafa another exodus where C and zarum will end up Reporting MOS from NASA runs an American medical charity working in Gaza two weeks ago he arrived in Rafa with 17 members of the medical staff working in the European hospital today he supervised their evacuation from the box strong house they have been using, which is in one of the areas that the Israeli army has ordered people to leave.

I spoke to him before and asked him how the evacuation went in terms of evacuation. The European Hospital has not been ordered to evacuate, however, the bombs were falling within a five meter radius of 100 meters from our supposed safe house which in reality is no longer safe and that is why we decided to move this 17 meter , we have 12 Americans, three British, one from Egypt and one from Oman, staying overnight. last night here at the European hospital and we woke up this morning to the news that the area where our safe house is had been ordered to evacuate so effectively that we evacuated before the evacuation orders because we couldn't tolerate the bombing they were having. place even before the evacuation orders, the Israel Defense Forces say they are asking people to move from these areas to reduce civilian casualties, they say this is temporary while they carry out these operations, um, it's just that what you are seeing on the ground, the word evacuation sounds very soft to be honest, what we have seen is really what we have experienced ourselves.

We were forced to evacuate without evacuation orders. Our block where we were staying in Rafa was not under evacuation until yesterday, but we had no other option. but evacuate because the bombs were falling even to the west of us, which is supposed to be in the central eastern part of Rafa, which was not supposed to be bombed, but the bombs were falling even to the west of Rafa, which made us feel very worried , as executive director. from the organization very concerned about the safety of my team we are seeing reports that Aid cannot reach certain areas what are you seeing what are you hearing and what is happening in the hospital that you are working in uh when We talk about aid, there are different types help for us, what is really more important is medical help.

We don't see that we don't have it. In fact, we had it when we arrived in Gaza on April 29. We had to take her. our own suitcases full of medical supplies and wound care and orthopedic implants and everything we need to be useful when we come here when we get to the hospital none of that really exists the hospital runs on a very thin line of supplies that uh without the things that We bring we would be useless here Dr. NASA, what do you think the next few days will be like? What worries you? What worries you most about this slow expansion of the military operation in RA?

It worries us. I really hope we can. Get our team out of Gaza as soon as possible, out of RA as soon as possible and I really hope for the safety of the people from what we have seen in the last few days, the victims that arrived at the hospital, it was heartbreaking. We don't see war, to be honest with you, we don't see war, we see madness, we see families wiped out, we see families taken to the emergency room, mother, father, children, um, boys and girls screaming and bleeding, we don't see. I've been here for over 10 days with my team, we haven't seen a single fighter coming to the hospital, we haven't seen anyone who looks like a military man, we see families and that's really heartbreaking, I just can't imagine. leaving tomorrow or next week or whatever the Crossing border opens and we have the opportunity to leave and leave these families stranded, on top of that, the chaos, the chaos that we will really instill and the fear that we will instill in the hearts of the locals when we leave we are also worried because they think that we know more than they know and if we leave it means that they know that things will go south M NASA thank you very much for joining us, it seems like a really difficult situation for you and your team and I hope you stay safe thank you.

I've also been speaking with Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former State Department diplomat. I asked him what he thinks the Biden administration is. privately saying about Israel's military expansion in Rafa, well, the president already indicated that he stopped a shipment of high payload munitions, but he also continued with 4 billion dollars in a Supplemental National Security emergency for Israel along with 60 billion dollars for Ukraine. They also have another $780 million. of weapons in the pipeline that the Israelis are going to receive, so this is not an arms embargo in any way, it is a signal, it is a warning note, the president has basically said that there would be more pauses, maybe even restrictions on the Israeli military assistance.

If in fact the Israelis go ahead with this, I guess that's the real question: Will the Israelis stay below what the administration perceives as its red line, and what precisely is the administration's red line? And none of those things are very clear. I wonder what he thinks. What will happen next because there was a statement today from the IDF saying that they are going to return to an area that has already been cleared. The Israelis now face a problem: they have cleared many areas in northern and central Gaza, but Hamas has begun to re-emerge and, unlike the Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan, where the strategy was to hold and build, the Israelis certainly They can clear, but they find it difficult to sustain themselves and do not want to build.

They don't want to, they don't want to occupy Gaza forever, but at the same time the Netan government has refused to engage in anything that you and I would consider major post-war planning. What will happen even if they destroy the organized structure of Hamas as a military group? which took over that report on Friday night UK time, which said it was reasonable to assess that US weapons had been used, which is incompatible with international humanitarian law. He also said that Hamas Shields behind civilian populations did so. What you make of that report, on the one hand, is the most critical report of how Israelis have behaved since most of these seven months until I think April was the deadline, but on the other hand, the administration clearly and no administration.

For whom he had worked, Republicans or Democrats wanted to enter a situation where they would be legally or even politically forced to restrict or end US military assistance to Israel. Now they have seen pushback from Republicans who were accusing the administration. of treason, they are trying to navigate an impossible line to navigate and where does this leave the Biden administration, as you said? Republicans say it's too weak. Democrats on his left flank also say he is too weak and the election is approaching too soon. I mean, there is a way out, which is an Israeli negotiation with Hamas leading to the release of the hostages in exchange for six and seven weeks of pauses, could be used to increase humanitarian assistance, remove the hostages and reduce Israeli military activity. , but it doesn't seem like we are. able to produce that largely in the Biden administration, that's because the Israelis and the Israeli government and Hamas have other goals and finally, do you think the Israeli government is essentially waiting for Donald Trump to come in because his administration will have a different opinion on this, which certainly could be the Prime Minister's goal, but clearly Netanyahu probably believes it and must remain in power because if he loses power he will be tried for bribery fraud and breach of trust in the Jerusalem District Court.

He will face a conviction or most likely a plea deal that will be the end of his political career and this man has no intention, I believe given his will to remain in power, to see either of those outcomes. as long as he can and will do whatever it takes to put up with Aon David Miller. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.