The US Secretary of Defense insists to his Israeli counterpart on the urgency of alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The relations between Israel and the United States may have reached a turning point, but not a breaking point because their character is “unbreakable.” This is how the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin, defined them after meeting this Tuesday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, a day after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister and Gallant’s leader in the Likud, attacked the White House for allowing the approval of an immediate ceasefire resolution in Gaza, the first in six months of war, and canceled in a clear sign of anger the visit to Washington of two of its advisors to study alternatives to the offensive on Rafah.

On his second day of meetings in the United States, Gallant, whose agenda included issues of military collaboration and especially strengthening the air capacity of his army, was also scheduled to meet with the director of the CIA, William J. Burns, a veteran diplomat with good knowledge of the region and who last week participated in Doha in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, co-sponsored by the US, Egypt and Qatar.

Friction between the two allies due to pressure from the White House on Netanyahu’s government has brought the bilateral relationship to its lowest levels in a long time. Washington’s insistence that Israel reduce the intensity of its offensive on Gaza to minimize the suffering of the civilian population also ran through the meeting between Gallant and Austin. “In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is too little,” Austin told reporters before meeting with his counterpart at the Pentagon. “Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse,” said the Secretary of Defense, with a more forceful tone than that used by the Administration to which he belongs in the first months of the war.

“Unbreakable” bond

However, Austin also stressed, Israel has the right to defend itself and the United States will always be at its side because the bilateral bond is “unbreakable.” “The United States is Israel’s closest friend and that will not change,” he added. Washington provides billions of dollars annually in aid and arms to its privileged partner in the Middle East, followed by Egypt.

The urgent relief of the humanitarian crisis in the Strip, doomed to famine due to the ground blockade of aid convoys, was this Tuesday a new blow to the Israeli Government, a day after, in protest of the US abstention in Security Council that allowed the approval of the first ceasefire resolution in the war, Netanyahu canceled a visit to Washington by two of his highest-ranking advisors, to discuss alternatives to the announced ground offensive on Rafah, another issue in the agenda of the meeting of the two defense ministers. President Joe Biden has warned Netanyahu that a raid on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would only cause more chaos.

Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.

Subscribe

For his part, Gallant emphasized the threats to Israel and said the meeting would discuss ways to destroy Hamas and secure the release of Israeli hostages, as well as plans to return displaced residents of Israel to their homes. the limits with the Strip and the border towns with Lebanon.

In a measured communication exercise to temper the loud Israeli anger of the day before, both ministers were cautious when assessing the objectives of their meeting. Austin did not mention threats to limit or condition future military aid to Israel on improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a growing demand among members of Congress such as Senator Bernie Sanders, who has called for suspending all military aid to Israel. Gallant only said that the meeting would address important cooperation between the two countries to “ensure Israel’s military advantage and capabilities,” including the hypothetical reinforcement of its aviation.

The Israeli Defense Minister’s meeting with his American counterpart came a day after Prime Minister Netanyahu lashed out at the United States for abstaining from the UN Security Council vote, calling it a “regression” from previous Israeli positions. United States and saying that the measure “harms the war effort, as well as the effort to free the hostages.” The same day, Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. According to White House spokesman John Kirby, Monday’s meetings were not a substitute for those planned for the ultimately canceled trip of Netanyahu’s two advisers.