{"id":32712,"date":"2024-04-05T12:26:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T19:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32712"},"modified":"2024-04-05T12:26:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T19:26:06","slug":"biden-administration-approved-more-bombs-to-israel-on-day-of-world-central-kitchen-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/biden-administration-approved-more-bombs-to-israel-on-day-of-world-central-kitchen-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Approved More Bombs to Israel on Day of World Central Kitchen Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Hudson\/The Washington Post<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bidenman inspects the wreckage of a World Central Kitchen vehicle after Israel’s deadly airstrike on the convoy in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. (photo: Reuters)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

04 april 24<\/strong> (RSN.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Biden administration signed off on thousands more bombs to Israel despite global condemnation of the IDF\u2019s killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration approved the transfer of thousands more bombs to Israel on the same day Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed seven aid workers<\/a> for the charity group World Central Kitchen, three U.S. officials told The Washington Post this week after the incident elicited global condemnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction, which has not been previously reported, demonstrates the administration\u2019s determination to continue its flow of lethal weaponry to Israel despite Monday\u2019s high-profile killings and growing calls for the United States to condition such support on greater protection for civilians in the war zone. A U.S. citizen<\/a> was among the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move also casts new light on the emotional statement<\/a> by President Biden that he was \u201coutraged and heartbroken\u201d by the tragedy and was insistent that such events never happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThey were brave and selfless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli government confirmed it carried out Monday\u2019s strike but called it \u201cunintentional,\u201d saying the military would conduct a \u201ctransparent\u201d investigation and make the results public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Department approved the transfer of more than 1,000 MK82 500-pound bombs, over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, and fuses for MK80 bombs, all from authorizations granted by Congress several years before the latest hostilities between Israel and Hamas began, said the U.S. officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive arms deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A State Department spokesperson confirmed the approval and said it occurred sometime \u201cprior\u201d to when the Israeli aircraft struck the aid convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. government has the authority to suspend an arms package any time before delivery, which the spokesperson said probably would not occur until 2025 or later. It has not done so in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why the Biden administration did not at least pause the process after the incident or until the Israelis\u2019 investigation was completed, the spokesperson did not provide further comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials have not publicly disclosed what type of munition struck the aid truck, but the small-diameter bombs the United States has provided to Israel are \u201ccertainly comparable,\u201d said Josh Paul, a former State Department arms expert who resigned in protest<\/a> of the administration\u2019s Gaza policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden, in his statement following the attack, offered his most pointed criticism to date of Israel\u2019s treatment of humanitarian workers, who have died in greater numbers than in any other recent conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsrael has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday\u2019s simply should not happen,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the slain workers<\/a>, who included individuals from Australia, Britain, the Palestinian territories, Poland, and a U.S.-Canadian dual national, were \u201cheroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have to be protected. We shouldn\u2019t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Democratic supporters of the Biden administration criticized such statements, saying they result in little change when U.S. actions convey unconditional support for Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil there are substantive consequences, this outrage does nothing,\u201d Ben Rhodes, a former foreign policy adviser to President Barak Obama, said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201cobviously doesn\u2019t care what the U.S. says, it\u2019s about what the U.S. does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans in Congress have been broadly supportive of weapons transfers to Israel and have defended its tactics and methods in the six-month conflict. Former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee in this year\u2019s election, has said Hamas\u2019s killing rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was \u201cone of the saddest things I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d but that Israel needs to end the war soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to finish it up, you got to get it done,\u201d he told<\/a> an Israeli newspaper last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Central Kitchen on Thursday called <\/a>for a third-party investigation into the attacks and urged the home countries of the killed workers to join the charity in calling for an independent review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strikes hit three of the group\u2019s vehicles<\/a> as they traveled in Gaza on a route that had been coordinated and cleared with the Israeli military, the charity group said. The workers were killed shortly after overseeing the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to the enclave by sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s, the celebrity chef who founded World Central Kitchen, has alleged that Israel targeted the aid workers \u201csystematically, car by car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was not just a bad luck situation where \u2018oops\u2019 we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,\u201d he told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of,\u201d he said. It\u2019s \u201cvery clear who we are and what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel launched its military assault in Gaza after Hamas-led militants rampaged across the border on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel\u2019s ensuing assault on Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and says the majority of the dead are women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli siege has created a chronic shortage of food, water and medicine as the health system has collapsed and dozens of children have died of malnutrition and starvation, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dire need has compelled humanitarian workers from around the world to help provide aid to the besieged enclave, but Monday\u2019s killings are forcing aid groups to reassess the security environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.N. relief agencies have paused night operations to make a security assessment, a spokesperson said<\/a> Wednesday. At least two other aid groups have also said they would pause operations in Gaza because of safety concerns for their staff. About 200 aid workers have been killed during the war, most of them Palestinian, according<\/a> to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest arms transfers represent small portions, valued in the millions of dollars, of much larger foreign military sales that were approved by Congress years ago but never fulfilled in their entirety. The use of older cases means the State Department is not required to provide a new notification to Congress, even though the geopolitical and humanitarian context has changed significantly since the sales were approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked Tuesday about the State Department\u2019s role in continued arms transfers, Blinken cited regional threats to Israel from Iran and Hezbollah, saying the weapons \u201cgo to deterrence, trying to avoid more conflicts. They go to replenishment of their supplies and their stocks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But U.S. weapons are also being used in Gaza, which U.S. intelligence officials<\/a> and a growing number of Democrats worry could pose a security threat to the United States from extremist groups seeking to retaliate against Washington\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery moment that this nightmarish humanitarian condition continues inside Gaza is a day that the United States is less safe, because we bear global responsibility side by side with Israel,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told MSNBC on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil commitments can be made to open up more humanitarian access, the United States needs to stop sending military aid,\u201d Murphy added. \u201cIt\u2019s not only because we hope that it has some impact on decision-making inside Israel, but also because we think that actually helps insulate us from some of the blowback that is going to occur as terrorist recruitment grows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Hudson\/The Washington Post man inspects the wreckage of a World Central Kitchen vehicle after Israel’s deadly airstrike on the convoy in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. (photo: Reuters) 04 april 24 (RSN.org) The Biden administration signed off on thousands more bombs to Israel despite global condemnation of the IDF\u2019s killing… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32713,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32712\/revisions\/32713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}